Flight of Fancy
by Autobot Guardian
Summary: Sunstreaker and Prowl have known each other since their earliest days, and have always been close, though it's hard to see at most times. Now, with their relationship on a whole knew level after discovering what the feelings in their sparks meant, they have an argument that threatens to tear that relationship apart. Can they learn to forgive and forget, and spread their wings?
1. Runaway

As Prowl walked through the corridors of the Ark, he began to hear a very soft, quite annoying tapping sound under his feet. Pausing for a moment, he looked down, and the floor suddenly gave way beneath him. He ended up tangled in a literal web of chains, and his doorwings were stuck at an odd angle. He sighed, and commed Optimus.

"Sir? Could you please come get me out of a hole in the corridor leading to my office? And please bring some others with you. I seem to be a bit… tangled up." That last part was nearly a growl as he began to plot the punishment for whoever was responsible for this prank. Ten agonizing minutes later, he heard footsteps in the corridor above him, and he tried his best to get an arm free to help, but to no avail. "I'm down here."

"Don't worry, Prowl, we'll get you out of there!" Three heads poked over the side of the hole, and one was someone he was planning to punish later on. Optimus and the twins surveyed the situation, then disappeared back over the side.

"Prime, I think I might have a laser cutter in the quarters I share with Sides. I mainly use it on a low setting for etching, but I think that if I raise the power enough, it will cut through those chains." Sunstreaker's voice echoed from the walls of the corridor down into the hole, and Prowl felt his spark skip a pulse as he listened to the angry, yet concerned, tone.

"Go get it. Sideswipe, do you have anything that could help?" Prime's baritone voice echoed down, along with fading footsteps.

"I might be able to climb down and get him loose a bit more before Sunny comes back, but it depends on how tangled he is. I'm not sure if I could get him completely free without hurting him more than he possibly is already, though."

"Don't try to free him all the way, just give him a bit of room to move around so it will lessen the obvious pressure on his doorwings. He's probably in pain right now." Prowl started to wonder how Prime always seemed to know what he was feeling, then turned his thoughts back towards the fact that Sideswipe, who had probably set up the prank in the first place, was coming down to help. It didn't make any sense to his logic-set mind.

"Prowl, I'm coming down, all right?" Sideswipe's head reappeared over the edge of the hole, and the red warrior turned around, and carefully felt the sides of the hole to find places where he could hold on to. The red twin almost fell at one point, but the mass of crisscrossed chains were enough to catch his fall. It amazed Prowl how the twin managed to avoid being tangled in them, and noticed the expression of intense concentration on Sideswipe's face. Soon, the twin was walking on one chain that went close to Prowl like it was a tightrope that humans walked on in circuses. Once the twin was as close as he could get to the SIC, he reached out, and started to lightly tug on some of the chains wrapped around the doorwings.

Prowl couldn't stop the slight grunt of pain when Sideswipe accidentally yanked a bit too hard, and the twin looked up at him worriedly. "Did that hurt?"

"Only a little. Please continue with removing those chains." Prowl was an expert of hiding his own discomfort, but sometimes something slipped through. The SIC focused on how the twin was experimentally tugging on chains to see which ones were easiest to remove, and Prowl did what he could to help by pointing out where he could feel any chains that were particularly loose from when he first got tangled. Sometimes Prowl would make a slightly pained sound, and the red twin would worriedly ask if it had hurt him when he pulled on one of the chains, but the SIC would dismiss it and insist that Sideswipe resume trying to get as many chains as he could off of him. Then, they heard hurried footsteps coming down the corridor.

"Prime, I got the laser cutter! Want me to go down there myself, or should I let Sides do it?"

"I think it would be safer if you did it. You have a steadier hand."

"Right." The head of the yellow twin poked over the edge of the hole. "Sides, come back up, and I'll go down there to free him the rest of the way, all right?"

"Sure, bro! Just be careful, because some of those chains are really tight!" The red twin stopped tugging on the chains, and carefully walked tightrope-style back to the side of the hole. Once he had climbed out, Prowl saw Sunstreaker climbing down to get to that same chain that Sideswipe had been perched on.

"I'm coming, Prowl!" Sunstreaker walked along the chain with more confidence than Sideswipe did, and his pace was quicker as well. When he had reached the SIC, the yellow twin pulled a laser cutter out of subspace. "All right, try not to move, all right, Prowl?"

"Very well. I can't move that much at the moment anyway." Prowl kept himself as still as possible, and heard the laser cutter starting up. One by one, he felt chains falling away from him, and he could have moved if he wanted to, but he did not want to risk Sunstreaker accidentally cutting him. When the only chains left were ones that were not wrapped around him, but were actually supporting him from below, Sunstreaker turned off the laser cutter, and put it back into subspace.

"Prowl, do you think you can climb up on your own?"

"I do not believe so. When I fell, one of the chains jerked on my left leg so hard that the support struts were snapped."

"Slag it. I'll have to carry you then." Before the SIC could protest, Sunstreaker had picked him up, and settled him onto his back. On reflex alone, Prowl threw his arms around the warrior's neck, and he tried his best to keep his weight evenly distributed so that the warrior would not lose his balance and fall deeper into the hole. Once Sunstreaker had climbed high enough to get his head above the edge of the hole, Prime and Sideswipe lifted the SIC off of the yellow twin's back, and Sunstreaker was able to move more quickly to get himself out. Prowl soon found himself supported on his injured side by the red twin, and the two of them were walking towards the med bay, with Sunstreaker following behind like a worried mother hen.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Prowl, it wasn't Sideswipe that did it!"

"Sunny, you would always say that, wouldn't you?"

"Prowl, Sides would NEVER do a prank like this!" The yellow warrior threw his arms up into the air in frustration. "Sides has his own set of rules for pranks, and rule number one is to never do a prank that would seriously hurt or even kill someone. He would never do a prank like that!"

"Who else do you know that even COULD pull off a prank like that hidden hole filled with chains?"

"I don't know, but it's not Sides! Why do you insist that it's him, when you know that he would never try to hurt you OR me on purpose?!"

"Maybe because he's the only one that could pull off something so complicated in secret?" Prowl was sitting on his berth with his left leg propped up on some spare pillows that were brought in, as well as in a splint.

"Slag it, Prowl! Why can't you just accept that not every prank is done by my brother?!"

"Why can't YOU accept that your brother is the most notorious prankster here?!"

"THAT'S IT! I'm out of here, Prowl! I'm going to my own room!" Sunstreaker stormed out of the SIC's quarters, and made the sliding door close so fast that it was equivalent in dramatization to a human slamming a hinged door when leaving a room in a rage. All of a sudden, Prowl felt remorse for what he had said. _What have I done?_

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Sunstreaker stomped into the quarters he shared with his twin, and found them empty. Ignoring the calls he was receiving from Prowl, he grabbed his things, and stuffed them into subspace. In the bottom of one of his crates, he found an old box he hadn't opened in eons. Checking the contents, he put it into subspace as well, and then left the room. Tears started to stream down his face, and he started running as quickly as he could towards the entrance of the Ark.

"Sunny! Where are you going?!" Sunstreaker ignored the voice of his twin, and even went so far as to block of the twin bond between them. Hearing frantic footsteps behind him, he transformed, and drove as fast as he could towards the outdoors. "Sunny! Please, come back!"

The moment he reached the outdoors, he transformed, and started running towards the forest. He was putting on an old suit from the Golden Ages as he ran, and once it was on completely, he brought his arms behind him, and swept forwards past the lower parts of his thighs, his hands catching in two pockets that fit them perfectly. Hidden devices activated, and when Sideswipe was outside, Sunstreaker was gone. "Sunny…"

 **0o0o0o0o0**

As the mech colored in ruby red, golden yellow, and black flew through the air, he was using a feature he had to flap specially-designed wings to keep aloft. The wings were exactly like those of an Earth bat or the mythical dragon, and his fingers were in special controls that allowed him to expand or contract how wide they were. His thumbs were free, and he wore a mask that was like an Earth dragon from medieval mythology. Finding a high mountaintop, he alighted on a rock, and brought his wings forwards. Sweeping them past the lower parts of his thighs, the controls on his hands disconnected, and the wings became indistinguishable from the rest of him. His emerald-green optics swept around the landscape, and fell upon a cave.

As he entered the cave on the top of the mountain, he was checking odd little devices on his arms and chest to make sure nothing was wrong. Once inside the cave, he took out a large lantern, and set it on the ground.

"I hope this still works…" The words were mumbled to himself, as the Cybertronian activated a component in his mouth that had not been used since Cybertron's Golden Age. Bringing his face close to the lantern, he sent a small spurt of fire from his mouth to the wick, and the lantern was lit. The mech coughed a bit as he sat up, and a few sparks came out of his mouth. "Ugh… I'm going to need to practice some more for that…"

His comm. unit was turned off, and he was now completely isolated from everyone else. He brought out some of his supplies, and stared for a long while at a picture he had packed with everything else. It was an image of a yellow and black mech standing with one colored in red and black, with a black and white Praxian mech standing between them. After he managed to tear his gaze away from it, he set the picture on a rock shelf, and set his bedding on the floor of the cave. After a few minutes of lying in the light of the lantern, he finally fell into recharge.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Prowl, I can't talk with you right now!"

"Sideswipe. My office. NOW." The Praxian was walking with the help of a crutch given to him by Ratchet, the CMO, and was trying to herd a certain red hellion to his office for punishment.

"Not right now, Prowl! I have to go find Sunny!"

"I am sure he will be seen somewhere in the base today…"

"Prowl, HE RAN AWAY! I saw him running outside, and by the time I got out there, HE. WAS. GONE!"

"WHAT?!" Prowl gaped at the red twin, not caring if other mechs saw him. He just could not believe that the yellow twin had just up and left the base. "Well, he's coming back, right?"

"He took most of his stuff with him! I don't think he'll be back for a while, Prowl! I just HAVE to go find him!" The red twin started to run towards the exit, but Prowl grabbed onto his arm.

"I'll notify Prime, and send out Hound and Trailbreaker. They might be able to pick up his trail. You need to calm down." Prowl dismissed what he had originally intended to do, and started to make his way to Optimus Prime's office. In his processer, there was only one thought. _This is all my fault…_

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Three weeks later, and there was still no sign of Sunstreaker. Prowl and Sideswipe had started to get increasingly worried about the yellow warrior, and the lack of information on his whereabouts wasn't helping. Prowl was sitting in the monitor room, watching SkySpy's visual feed to see if there was any sign of the yellow twin.

'ALERT: UNKNOWN CYBERTRONIAN SIGHTED NEAR NEW YORK CITY.' Teletraan 1's robotic voice snapped Prowl out of the daydream-like state he had fallen into, and the SIC immediately turned his full attention towards the monitor. There was a ruby-red, golden yellow, and black mech near the highway just a half-mile from the outskirts of New York City, and he seemed to be… dancing. There was a small crowd of humans gathered around a container near the highway, and they were occasionally throwing money into it. The mech was performing complicated, yet elegant, dances to Earth music. Suddenly, the mech swept his hands past the lower outside parts of his thighs, and seemed to suddenly sprout wings in place of arms. He rose into the air, and started to dance there as well. The humans started to cheer, and many were taking pictures. More money was thrown into the container on the ground, and as the songs kept changing, so did the style of airborne dance that the mech performed. As the last song ended, the mech spread his 'wings' as far as they could go to catch as much of the wind as possible, and tilted his head up, releasing a raging torrent of flames from his mouth.

"What in the name of Primus…" Prowl's optics were riveted to the monitor screen, as he watched the mech gently drift down to the ground, and the humans cleared a space for him, throwing a bit more money into the container before departing. The mech held his wings in front of him, and brought them backwards over the lower outside parts of his thighs, and the wings seemed to disappear and the original arms remained. The strange mech picked up the container of money, and set it into his subspace, then looked up at the SkySpy satellite. After a moment, he brought his hands forwards across the lower outside parts of his thighs, and his arms one again appeared to be wings. He raised them above his head, and brought them down with incredible power, immediately rising into the air. Like some majestic mythical creature, the mech flew away, and went out of sight. Prowl sighed, and relaxed again. When the mech had looked straight into the camera, it seemed as if he could actually SEE Prowl sitting at the monitor. It had been unsettling to say the least, and yet so, so familiar. However, even with his highly advanced logic center and battle computer, he could not put his finger on the reason why.

"Prowl?" The SIC nearly jumped when he heard the baritone voice behind him, and he swiveled his seat around to look directly into the optics of none other than Optimus Prime.

"Yes, sir?"

"Anything to report on the search?"

"Yes, actually. When SkySpy was travelling past New York City, it picked up a strange new mech that not even Teletraan 1 could identify." As the Praxian spoke, he swiveled his chair back around, and brought up a recording of the strange dancing mech. As the music played, the mech on the screen danced, most of the time in the air. At the end was the fire-breathing finale, and then the unsettling gaze directed at the camera. Beside him, Prowl picked up vibrations in the air that indicated that the Prime was shuddering.

"That is quite… unsettling. Yet, the mech seems somewhat familiar. Any thoughts on the matter, Prowl?"

"Negative, sir. I cannot figure out why this mech seems so familiar to me." Prowl turned off the recording, and switched back to the live feed.

"Well, keep working on it. I'll send out the Aerialbots to see if they can find him. This search has turned into a mystery."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Hey, you guys see that?" The red minibot with horns pointed up into the sky, and the two mechs with him looked up as well.

"What are you- oh…" Jazz's voice trailed off, and Mirage simply gaped at what they were seeing above them. It was a sparkling ruby-red, golden yellow, and black mech with emerald-green optics flying above them. Then, they noticed the sound of jet engines as well. Before any of the grounders could react, a blue Seeker jet flashed by above them, following the flying mech.

"Come on! Let's find out what's going on!" Cliffjumper took off through the forest, and the other two followed him. All of a sudden, a cluster of small missiles exploded near them as the winged mech flew low above them. As Jazz looked up, there was a flash of recognition in the new mech's emerald optics, but it was quickly flooded with fear and concern. Another explosion caused Jazz to go flying away from his comrades, and he reflexively curled into a ball and covered his head, feeling pain shoot through his right leg. When he finally stopped rolling, he found himself lying against a rocky cliff, and there was a Seeker jet coming in fast.

"We're coming, Jazz!" The saboteur could barely hear Mirage's voice as the sound of the jet engine filled his audios. Suddenly, the flying mech tackled the jet out of the air, and somehow, the mech's wings disappeared, and he was grappling with the jet with his arms. The saboteur tried to stand, but the pain in his leg threatened to send him into stasis. Slumping against the cliff, he watched the aerial battle, trying to place where he had seen that fighting style before. All of a sudden, the new mech opened his mouth, and a torrent of flames poured out, and the Seeker dropped out of the sky. The flames ceased, and the mech seemed to sprout wings in place of his arms again. Flying now, the mech turned towards Jazz, and smirked.

"Who are ya', mech?" Jazz's voice was but a whisper, as the mech looked around, and then started to fly as quickly as he could towards the saboteur. Startled, Jazz tried to get out of the way, but the mech landed, and slid to a stop just in front of the saboteur's feet. The mech swept his wings backwards over the lower outside parts of his thighs, and the wings turned into arms again. He pulled Jazz up to stand on one leg, and then pulled the saboteur up higher, strapping the smaller one to his chest so that Jazz was facing the same way that the mech was. The mech brought his hands forward over his own thighs again, and his arms were wings once more. Flapping powerfully, the two of them rose into the air, and Jazz was starting to feel tired again. Just before falling into stasis, the saboteur noticed that the sounds of the battle were getting quieter. Then, nothing.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Jazz, wake up." Who was talking to him? Onlining his visor, Jazz slowly made out the features of a lightly furnished cave, and a mech leaning over him. As the saboteur tried to sit up, a hand was pressed to his chest, keeping him lying on the ground. Was it the ground? It felt too soft to be a stone cave floor, or even a dirt surface. Turning his head, he saw a plain Cybertronian blanket, and realized that his head was resting on a Cybertronian pillow.

"What happened? Who are ya', mech?" Jazz was confused, and then noticed that the mech had done some basic repairs on his wounds. He hadn't just been wounded in the right leg, but also his left shoulder and his chest.

"Doesn't matter. For now, rest." The mech's voice was slightly familiar, but Jazz couldn't place it. It was deeper than the mech whose voiceprint was closest to it, so it couldn't be him. Besides, the two looked nothing alike.

"Fine. You're the Doc right now." Jazz relaxed on the makeshift bed, and he felt the mech poking around in his damaged leg. Strange… there was no pain, so he must have turned off the pain receptors. The saboteur looked around the cave as best he could just moving his head around, but the only things he could see was another chamber in the back, and a lamp near the back wall. He couldn't see what exactly was in the other chamber, but he figured that there was more in there then there was in the chamber where the mech was tending to him. After a few minutes, the mech stopped poking around in his leg, and stood up.

"Stay here. Don't move too much. I'll bring you energon." With those three simple sentences, the mech walked into the other chamber, and Jazz was left alone. He could hear the clink of metal in there, and soon smelled something that he hadn't detected since the Golden Ages on Cybertron. If he had been organic, his mouth would have been watering. It was the delicious smell of energon being prepared for a meal. After a few more minutes, the mech came back into the chamber, carrying a Cybertronian plate and a small cube of energon. The plate was heaped with food-prepared energon, and the energon was a bit more silvery than the military rations the saboteur was used to by that time.

"Ya' went through all that trouble fo' meh?" Jazz grinned at the mech, and was surprised when his 'host' set the prepared energon on a broken stalagmite, and walked the rest of the way over to the saboteur. Instead of replying to the question with words, the mech helped Jazz sit up and lean against a taller stalagmite, then brought the prepared energon meal over to him.

"Eat. I will bring you to the Autobots in the morning." With those words, the mech turned, and walked back into the other chamber. Not paying any heed to the departure, Jazz hungrily ate the energon-food meal, and drank the flavored liquid energon. He hadn't had anything that tasted that good since before the war, and he was going to savor every last bit of it.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

When Jazz awoke the next morning, he immediately noticed the mech checking his wounds. Jazz smiled, remembering how good his meal the night before had tasted. Then, he remembered his situation. He was going to be taken back to the Autobots that morning.

"How soon 'till we leave?" Jazz was surprised when the mech simply glanced at his face, before returning to doing last-minute repairs on the saboteur's leg.

"Not long. We'll leave after I finish with this. You won't mind flying?" The mech glanced up at him again when asking the question, and Jazz grinned at him.

"Nope, I dun mind flyin' again." Jazz waited patiently as the mech finished repairs, and was confused when he went back into the other chamber. When the mech returned, he was carrying two boxes and a datapad. "What's that fo'?"

"I have news from Autobot Sunstreaker. This datapad and the larger box is for Autobot Prowl. This smaller box is for you to take. Will you make sure that Prowl gets his packages safely?" The saboteur was completely taken off-guard by the mech's words, and immediately recovered to take the packages from him.

"I'll do it fo' ya'. Jus' get meh back ta' base, an' I'll do it." Seeing the relieved smile on what little he could see of the mech's face, Jazz grinned back, and took the packages from him. He put them into subspace, along with the datapad, and looked up at the mech eagerly. "I'm ready ta' go!"

"Very well. I will get you there safely. I am sure that your comrades are worried about you." Carefully, the mech lifted Jazz up, and strapped him to his chest like he had the day before. The mech walked through the cave, and came out into the sunlight on top of a mountain. Jazz shielded his visor as it adjusted to the bright light, then looked in awe at the landscape. The mech was walking towards a sheer cliff.

"Wait, wait, you're gonna JUMP offa THAT?!" Just as Jazz was having second thoughts, the mech leaped, and they started to plummet towards the ground. Unable to help himself, Jazz freaked out, and screamed shrilly. Just seconds before they would have hit the ground, the mech brought out his wings, and the swooped up and into the air. Venting heavily from the rush of fear, Jazz tried to stop panicking.

"Did not expect that, did you?" The mech turned his head to look at the saboteur strapped to his chest, and Jazz smiled at him weakly.

"Not at all." Jazz finally recovered from the rush pf panic, and started to watch the landscape flash by beneath them. The mech did something with his legs, and Jazz started to notice that he was navigating better. Looking down, he saw that the mech's legs had metal-woven cloth stretched between them now, like the tail of a bird, and was using it to maneuver. The saboteur returned his attention to the ground flashing by, and noticed the Ark rising up in the distance. To Jazz's surprise, the mech somehow undid whatever he had done to make the metal cloth between his legs appear, and he landed in the forest near the base.

"This is as far as I go. Can you make it the rest of the way?" The mech's question was not in any way scornful, and it was full of regret.

"I think I can. Thanks fo' your help." Jazz limped through the trees, using the thicker ones to support himself, and when he turned back for a final look at the mech, he was gone. Filing away how little time it had taken for the strange mech to just vanish like that, Jazz turned back in the direction of the Ark, and continued struggling through the forest. After resting for what seemed like the millionth time to try and reduce the pain coming from his wounds, he reached the edge of the forest. There were several mechs milling about, including Sideswipe, who was doing target practice with some bulls-eye signs on rocks using his blaster, and the saboteur smiled in relief. "Hey, think ya' can lend an injured mech a hand?"

"JAZZ!" Instantly, a gray and silver Praxian was at the saboteur's side, supporting him so that he didn't put too much weight on his injured leg. "We were so worried about you! Where have you BEEN?! Mirage and Cliff said that one moment you were being attacked by Seekers, and the next a Seeker was going down in flames and you were gone!"

"Blue, calm down. Ah actually ended up on the top of some mountain somewhere with a strange mech ah've neva seen befo'." Jazz gave the Datsun a grateful smile, as Bluestreak helped him walk over to the Ark. Soon enough, more mechs had crowded around them, trying to offer what assistance they could. Somehow, word got to Ratchet that the saboteur had returned, and he was immediately ordered to report to med bay.

"You just HAD to go and get fragged up, didn't you?! Seriously, Jazz, you're just as bad as the twins sometimes…" The medic trailed off as he remembered that one twin was currently both AWOL and MIA. Trying to comfort the CMO, Jazz put a hand on Ratchet's shoulder.

"Well, ah've got some good news. Tha' mech that took care a' meh said that he had a message and a package for Prowler from Sunny."

"WHAT?!" The medic immediately wheeled about to glare at him. "And you didn't think to mention this BEFORE now?! Right now, Prowl is working himself into the ground with worry!"

"Whoa, hey, calm down, Ratch'! Ah've got the package an' datapad right here!" Jazz took the larger package and the datapad out of his subspace, and held them out to the CMO. "Ya' gonna give 'em ta' Prowler or what?"

"Give me those!" The medic snatched them out of the saboteur's hands, and rushed out of the room, leaving a very confused Jazz behind.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"PROWL! Prowl, Jazz is back, and he has news about Sunstreaker!" At the shout from the medic, the very exhausted SIC turned his head to look at the CMO with a hopeful look in his optics.

"Is Sunstreaker all right? And what about Jazz, where has he been?" Prowl's exhaustion was clearly wearing down on the stoic mask he usually had to cover his emotions. At that point, his worry and hope was clearly showing through.

"I'm not sure for either of those points, but Jazz received some items from a strange mech who said that they were from Sunstreaker for you." Ratchet gave the SIC the package and the datapad he had snatched from Jazz, and the tactician turned on the datapad hurriedly.

' _Dear Prowl,_

 _I know you are probably worried about me, but please, don't be. I'm not sure if you can forgive me for yelling at you like I did, but I was right in the fact that Sides did not play that prank on you. I don't know when I'll be back, but when I do come back, I hope that you won't still be mad at me. I convinced the mech who was to be holding this datapad and the package for you to make something special for you, since right now I am currently just wandering around the countryside. I didn't go too far away, because I didn't want to cause too much worry for you. I'll come back when I feel I am ready. Try not to worry, Copper._

 _-Sunstreaker_ '

Prowl set down the datapad with a sigh, and noticed that Ratchet had left the room. His gaze wandered over to the package beside him, and curiosity got the better of him as he picked it up and set it on his lap. Carefully opening it, a wonderful aroma arose from its contents, and he realized that, inside, there was an array of energon doughnuts that were baked not too long ago. Glancing around, he closed the box, and set it into his subspace so that the wonderful smell would not attract unwanted attention. He would eat them later.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

The strange mech stood on the top of the mountain, just above the entrance to his cave. He was looking around, making sure that everything in what he considered his domain to protect was in order. Suddenly, his sharp optics caught sight of smoke rising in the forest nearby, and when his vision zoomed in on it, he saw that it was on fire. Growling to himself, he swept his hands past the lower outside parts of his thighs, and his arms became wings from hidden mechanisms on his suit. Leaping off of the mountaintop, he spread those wings wide, and prepared special contraptions that were hidden in the framework of his wings. When he swooped low over the burning part of the forest, he used his thumbs to press buttons, and a fine mist came out of a hidden compartment in each wing.

He repeated this many times, and eventually, the forest fire was stopped. With a satisfied nod to himself, the mech flew back to his mountain, and detached his arms from his wings, once more appearing to not have any hint of having the wings to begin with. Sweeping his gaze over the landscape again, he caught sight of a low-flying trio of jets headed away from his mountain. With a snarl, he once again activated his wings, and flew as fast as he could after them.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Prime, the Decepticons are attacking a power plant near Portland!" Prowl swiveled his chair around to face his Commander, and the others in the room were immediately alert.

"We will stop them. Autobots, roll out!"

 **0o0o0o0o0**

The Autobots arrived at the power plant to an unusual scene. Up in the air, a mech colored in ruby-red, golden yellow, and shining black was flying with wings that were attached to his arms, and actually employing hand-to-hand combat in the air. Megatron, his opponent, was trying to deflect the lightning-fast blows aimed at him, and at the same time trying to hit his opponent. And failing.

"You shall not prevail, Megatron!" The voice was oddly familiar, but deeper than they were used to, so they couldn't put a finger on who it was. The strange flying mech landed a wing-blow to Megatron's head, sending the gun-former plummeting to the ground. Megatron recovered, and caught sight of the Autobots.

"Optimus Prime! A new recruit, is he?" Megatron charged the Autobot leader, but was stopped by a sudden burst of flames that seemed to come out of nowhere. Looking around, the Cybertronians saw the new mech coughing, and sparks coming out of his mouth.

"That's… new…" Mirage was at a loss for words, only able to get those two out before he was attacked by the Cassetticon twins, Rumble and Frenzy. The battle was soon under way, and even though there was only one Autobot twin visible on the field, the new mech more than made up for the missing twin. Suddenly, Skywarp teleported right behind Prowl, and grabbed him by the doorwings. Using the thrusters in his feet, the Seeker pulled the SIC into the air, higher than most of the others on the field could go.

"Good-bye, Autobrat!" Skywarp grinned maliciously, and dropped the tactician. Prowl turned off his optics, not wanting to see the ground hurtling up towards him, but as he was falling, something caught him. He felt large, gentle arms wrap around him that were attached to metal cloth, and when he onlined his optics, he saw that the strange flying mech had caught him, and wrapped his wings around him.

"Climb onto my back. Safer there, and will let me fly." Prowl felt compelled to obey the firm order given to him, because of the seriousness in the mech's tone. Maneuvering carefully, the SIC climbed over the mech's right shoulder, and clung to his back. With impressive power, the mech raised his arm-wings, and brought them down forcefully. Immediately, the two were aloft, and Prowl could hear his savior grumble something that sounded like, "this slagging suit was never meant for battle…"

"What are you going to do now?" Prowl couldn't help asking the question, and just as the mech was about to answer, a laser shot past the SIC and hit the mech in the left shoulder. Immediately, they started to lose altitude.

"Lock wings." The mech wasn't directing the words at Prowl, rather, he seemed to have given a command to his suit. Immediately, the mech's arms were released from the wings, and the wings stayed outstretched in the air. Prowl noticed the mech do something with his legs, and they started gliding around in circles. Looking back, the SIC saw metal cloth stretched between the mech's legs, and it was acting like the tail of an Earth bird. As the mech angled his legs, they maneuvered around shots fired at them, but they were slowly losing speed. Looking forward again, Prowl saw the mech tending to his shoulder, and frowning.

"Are you all right?"

"Not bad. Can still fly." Short and to the point. Prowl could sense that the mech wasn't telling him the truth about his condition, but decided not to press him further. Suddenly, the mech reattached his arms to the wings, and started flapping again. He was building up speed, and when Prowl looked back, he saw why. Closing in fast behind them was Thundercracker, the blue Seeker.

"Can you out-fly him?"

"No. I don't have jet engines. He's probably looking for revenge for last time." The mech had a grim expression on his face, and Prowl realized what he had said.

"What do you mean by…" He never got to finish what he was going to say. The Seeker behind them fired at the mech Prowl was riding on, and scored a hit on his side. The mech let out a pained sound, and they started to fall again. Despite his injury, the mech twisted around, and wrapped his wings around the SIC again, this time protectively. As Prowl stared into the mech's optics, he noticed that they were filled with worry and regret, as well as concern.

"This is gonna hurt…" The mech's voice had changed. It was no longer so deep, and Prowl could nearly put his finger on who it was, but before he could, they hit the ground. They went rolling, and while the SIC remained unharmed, he could hear the pained sounds coming from the mech's vocalizer. There was a tearing sound, and they finally stopped rolling. Prowl could hear the pained gasps from the mech who still had his wings wrapped around him, and tried his best to comfort him. He could hear the sounds of battle fading farther away, and the mech slowly released Prowl from the grip of his wings. They were in the middle of a forest, and there was a trail of destroyed trees and energon behind them, as well as a trench marking where they had been rolling. Looking down at the mech, he noticed that he had put away one of his wings, and was grasping at the mask on his head.

"Are you all right?"

"Prowl…" How did the mech know his name? Stunned, the SIC watched as the mech slowly and painfully removed the mask from his head. The optics were no longer green, rather, they were a familiar shade of cerulean. Instead of having a dragonesque head, it was exactly like…

"SUNNY!" Thoroughly panicked now, Prowl grasped Sunstreaker's now-free hand, and cradled his head. Not caring about the tears running down his face, the SIC tried his best to calm himself down. "Sunny… why did you hide this from me?"

"Can't… everyone… have their… secrets?" Speaking between pained gasps, the warrior gave Prowl a weak smile, obviously trying to comfort the SIC.

"But why hide it from me? Why, Sunny?" Prowl tried to find a logical reason, but couldn't find any.

"If you… had known… before… now… would… you have… believed… I could… dance?" Sunstreaker made a valid point. The SIC realized that the twin was embarrassed to admit that he had been a dancer, and knew that it was no big deal at all, really.

"No, I guess I wouldn't have." Prowl then saw the energon starting to pool around the wounded mech. "Hold on, Sunny, I'll call Ratchet. How bad is it?"

"Nngh… don't… know… my internal… diagnostics… not working…" Sunstreaker shifted a bit out of discomfort, and locked dim optics onto the SIC. "Help… get… suit… off…"

"Of course." Prowl sent the request for help and their coordinates to Ratchet, then started to help Sunstreaker out of the flight suit, following the warrior's directions as best he could. As he removed more of the suit, he saw more and more damage that the warrior had taken to save _him_. When he had gotten half of the suit off, the other Autobots arrived.

"SUNSTREAKER?!" The collective gasp came from all of the Autobots that had just arrived, but upon seeing the state the warrior was in, Ratchet recovered from his shock, and rushed over.

"What the slag happened, and where the slag have you BEEN?!" The CMO started helping Prowl get Sunstreaker out of the flight suit, and once they were done, started to stabilize the warrior.

"Cave… on top of… mountain…" Sunstreaker's voice was getting fainter, and the pool of energon around him was getting larger by the second. Prowl hovered over him like a worried mother hen, and Ratchet started to get worried as well.

"We need to get him back to base NOW!" Ratchet's tone told the others that this was serious, and rushed to help. Ratchet transformed, and opened the doors on the back of his alt mode. "Get him inside! I'll take him back!"

"Right!" Ironhide and Prowl carefully lifted the wounded warrior, and deposited him gently in Ratchet's ambulance-form. Once the two were out, Ratchet slammed his doors shut, and sped off in the direction of their base. Turning back to face the others, Prowl saw them gathered around the energon-covered remains of Sunstreaker's flight suit. Seeing Sideswipe drop to his knees beside it, Prowl went over and put a hand on his shoulder.

"When did he get this?" At the gentle question, the red twin looked up, tears in his optics.

"He-he made this when he started taking a side job during the Golden Ages. He crafted this with his own two hands, and it actually worked the very first time he tried it. But… it was never meant to be used in battle. It was meant solely for performances." The warrior reached out, and lightly touched the mask that Sunstreaker had worn to conceal his identity.

"What about the fire-breathing?"

"Also meant for performances. You saw how he was coughing out sparks, right?" Prowl nodded. "Well, he hasn't used that component for eons, so it's kinda on the fritz after every time he uses it. It was an upgrade for when he was to do a dance called 'Predacons Rising', and he was always the dragon Predacon."

"I see. And why did he keep it a secret for the entire war?"

"He had a reputation to keep. Now, I'm not sure how the others will think of him. He's smarter than he lets on, Prowl. Especially considering that he had rigged this suit to have different components for special effects." To prove his point, Sideswipe pulled one of the wings so it was outstretched, and pressed a button. Immediately, glowing dust burst out of a hidden compartment in the wing, and hung in the air.

"That is… quite impressive."

"Yeah. We also had to hide it so that Wheeljack didn't try to take it apart to see how it worked." Sideswipe smirked, and Prowl made his decision.

"We will take this back to the Ark, and when Sunny recovers, we will allow him to repair it, if he can." Prowl gathered up the remains of the flight suit, and put them into his subspace. The last thing he picked up was the mask, and upon close inspection, he realized that Sunstreaker's optics had only appeared green because the lenses on the mask were a golden yellow. Once every bit of the suit was salvaged and put into his subspace, the SIC transformed, and drove in the direction of the Ark.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

By the time the other Autobots arrived back at base right behind the SIC Prowl, Ratchet had already gotten Sunstreaker into the med bay, and was currently working at a rapid pace to stabilize the mech.

"Come on, Sunstreaker, you're too stubborn to just give up like this!" The CMO was grumbling under his breath, hoping against all hope that the mech would pull through. Working quickly, Ratchet managed to seal off all of the places where energon was bleeding out of the warrior, but he was still in a critical condition. Hearing a tap at the window, Ratchet looked up, and saw Prowl looking in with an openly worried expression on his face. Deciding to ignore the SIC, the CMO went back to trying to revive the unconscious warrior.

Hearing the beeping signaling an emergency stop, Ratchet tiredly sat down in the chair next to the medical berth, and let out an explosive sigh. Giving a wave to Prowl, the CMO signaled that the SIC could enter the med bay.

"Is he going to be all right?" The SIC had barely entered the med bay when he dashed to the side of the yellow twin. Prowl gently brushed his fingers across the mech's forehead, looking like he was just about to cry.

"He'll be fine, but he needs a lot of recovery time. I can't believe he was able to keep this a secret for so long, especially considering all you went through together for practically your whole lives. I seem to recall that you, the twins, Mirage, Jazz, and Red Alert grew up together in Iacon Tower, am I correct?"

"You are. You should know, because you were there too. The twins moved to a nearby complex when they were just barely into the adult stage, however, and after that, I am not sure what all they did. I know that Sunny became an artist, for I went to a few of his art shows. I mostly lived in the Tower, as did Mirage, but I believe that Jazz knows more about what the twins did after moving out, because he became their next-door neighbor." Prowl sighed, then sat down in the other chair near the medical berth Sunstreaker was lying on.

"I'm surprised that Jazz didn't know about Sunstreaker's flight suit." Ratchet tapped his forefinger against his chin thoughtfully, then it looked as if something had clicked in his mind. "I think I know. Jazz once told me that, during the last few years before the war, Sunstreaker would disappear for days or weeks on end, and he would come back just as abruptly as he had gone. At those times, I would often hear about the 'Sky Dancer', who was also known as the 'Dragon Mech'. I believe that they and Sunstreaker were one and the same."

"That is a very logical train of thought, especially considering the new evidence we have of what Sunny would do in his spare time. You don't think that…" Prowl trailed off, remembering how Jazz had described the mech that had tended to him on the mountain had looked like.

"I do. I believe that Sunstreaker's personal belongings are still in that cave in the mountain. We need Jazz to lead a recovery team there. He's probably the only one besides Sunstreaker who knows where it is."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Hey, Skyfire, thanks fo' lendin' a hand in tha' search." Jazz was clinging to the top of the giant jet-form of the massive mech, looking at the ground to see if he could find any familiar landmarks that would lead him to the mountain.

"Not a problem, Jazz. After all, Sunstreaker is one of the few who actually accepted me in the beginning. I owe it to him, and to you." The jet flew over a river, and something in Jazz's memory banks clicked.

"Turn back! Ah remember seein' that riva' on tha' way ta' tha' Ark!" At the saboteur's request, the jet took a Banking turn, and started to circle above the river. Jazz swept his gaze over the surrounding forest, and saw a burnt area. He didn't remember seeing that before, but it looked recent enough to have happened after he was returned to the Autobots.

"See anything else familiar, Jazz?"

"Nah, ah think ya' need ta' fly lower. You're flyin' higher than 'Streaker did." The jet flew lower, and Jazz was able to get a better look at the forest.

"Now see anything?"

"Yeh. Ya' need ta' fly towards tha' burnt part a' tha' forest. That's the direction 'Streaker flew from when he was bringin' meh back." As the jet flew towards and over the burnt part of the forest, Jazz caught sight of something among the burnt skeletons of the trees. "Hold it! Can ya' hover here?"

"Sure." Flying low enough to just barely skim the treetops, Skyfire hovered just on the edge of the burnt part of the forest as Jazz leapt down to get a closer look. What he found stunned him.

"He musta dropped this." Jazz picked up what looked like a scrap of white and black metal cloth, which appeared to have been cut out of a larger piece. Putting it into subspace, Jazz used his grappling hook to swing himself back on top of the giant jet, and they continued on their way. Inside Skyfire, Sideswipe and Bluestreak were waiting to see if they could find the cave that Sunstreaker had been living in for the past month. After a few more minutes, Jazz saw a mountain and a cliff side appearing in the distance. "There! That's tha' place!"

"You sure?"

"A' course ah'm sure, Skyfire! I neva' forget a place where ah almost plummet ta' mah death!" Jazz pointed at the cliff, and he could hear the jet snickering at him. "What's so funneh?!"

"Just the image of you and Sunstreaker diving off the cliff and you freaking out about it."

"Jus' get us there, Fire." Once they were at the top of the mountain, Skyfire landed, and the two mechs inside exited, while Jazz slid off of the jet. Looking around in the snow, Jazz tried to remember where the cave was. Seeing an irregularity in the snow, he walked over there, and recognized the impressions of Sunstreaker's faded footprints. "Ova' 'ere! Ah found tha' trail!" Not bothering to make sure the others were following him, Jazz hurriedly followed the faded trail of footprints, and soon found the cave where Sunstreaker had tended to him when Jazz still hadn't know that it was him.

"This is the place?" Skyfire eyed the entrance warily. It was just big enough for him to fit in, but he had no idea how small the tunnels inside were.

"Yep. C'mon, let's go inside." Jazz led the way inside, and navigated the tunnels by memory alone. Stopping occasionally to let the others catch up, they soon arrived at the chamber in the cave where Jazz had been given first aid by Sunstreaker. Now able to get a better view of the room, he saw that there were various repair tools on rock shelves in the cave, as well as unlit lanterns, now that their flames had burned themselves out. However, one light still remained. Following it, Jazz found himself in the chamber he had never gotten to see the inside of.

"Hey, this must be where Sunny was sleeping!" Sideswipe had followed him in, and was looking around in awe. "I actually had no idea he even HAD some of this stuff!"

"That's surprisin'." Jazz was a bit distracted as he looked around at the colorful items all over the chamber. There were spinning multicolored decorations hanging from stalactites on the ceiling, and there was a single lit lamp on a rock shelf. All over the place were paintings, as well as a few tapestries woven from the same material Sunstreaker's suit wings were made from. There was a closed box leaning against the wall, and Jazz walked over to it, curiosity getting the better of him. "What's in 'ere?"

"Jazz, are you sure you want to look in that? It could be something Sunny wants to keep secret!" Sideswipe tried to stop the saboteur, but too late. The box was open, and the contents revealed. "Primus…"

"Ah think we should keep this a secret 'till 'Streaker wakes up, doncha think?" Jazz closed the box again, and set it into his subspace for transport.

"I agree, Jazz. I think Sunny should be the one to give it to him." Sideswipe and Jazz started to pick up everything in the room, and putting it into subspace. Jazz had already taken pictures of what the room had looked like when he had just entered the room, so they could accurately show the others what the room had looked like. He had also taken pictures of the other chamber, so they now had an accurate image of the layout of where Sunstreaker had been living. Once everything else was put into their subspaces, Jazz took the still-lit lamp down from the rock shelf it was resting on, and carried it out.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Yeah, Ratchet, Sunny was the one who gave Jazz that awesome patch job!" Sideswipe was showing the medic the pictures of the cave chamber where Sunstreaker had done first aid on the saboteur, and had deposited the repair tools on the CMO's desk.

"Well, he did an outstanding job. These tools also look like they've been kept in exemplary condition. Tell me, where did he learn how to repair others?" Ratchet's voice showed that he was purely curious about the tools and Sunstreaker's skills, and Sideswipe was happy to indulge him.

"Well, you see, Sunny and I used to take a side job as gladiators for arenas, and more often than not, we came away pretty slagged up. Sunny taught himself how to repair, so he always took care of us. He probably would have given Jazz a complete repair job, but he didn't have enough resources, especially considering what we found in the room he was obviously sleeping in…"

"What did you find?" Once again, that innocent curiosity.

"I can't say. Jazz and I agreed not to tell anyone until Sunny woke up. We decided that he should be the one to unveil it." Sideswipe smiled apologetically at the CMO. "Sorry."

"It's all right. I'll just have to wait to satisfy my curiosity." Ratchet turned his attention back to the tools on his desk. "Tell me, where did he get these tools?"

"He built them. We didn't exactly have enough money to afford the standard tools, so Sunny used what he knew from watching you in your med bay when we were younglings to build his own." Sideswipe was practically puffing up with pride for his brother.

"That is quite impressive." Ratchet gently moved the tools to the side of his desk. "I'll tell you when he wakes up."

"Thanks, Ratch'." Sideswipe smirked at him, then walked out of the med bay to put Sunstreaker's things in the room they shared together.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Nngh…" Bright cerulean optics flickered on, then flicked off quickly as they were flooded with light. Turning them on dimly to let them adjust to the light, the yellow mech tried to remember what had happened.

"Sunstreaker?" At the sound of the voice, the yellow twin turned his head in that direction, and saw Ratchet sitting in the seat beside the berth he was in. Huh, so he was in med bay.

"Ratchet?" Sunstreaker's voice was a bit shaky, but at least he was speaking. "Wha-what happened?"

"You tried to die on me, you slagger!" The medic felt compelled to whack the mech in the head with his wrench, but seeing as he had only just woken up after five days in stasis, he refrained.

"Prowl! Is he… is he all right?"

"He's fine. It's yourself you should be worried about." The medic went over to check the healing wounds on the mech's frame, and Sunstreaker started to sort out his memories.

"I guess you guys know now, huh?"

"Slagging right we do." Ratchet saw the mech wince at his harsh tone, and mentally reprimanded himself.

"Did… did Jazz take you guys to where I was staying?"

"He only took Sideswipe, Blue, and Skyfire with him. And they say that they found something interesting there, but they won't tell anyone about what it is. It's driving me nuts!" Ratchet sighed internally out of relief when he saw the faint smirk on the warrior's face. So they didn't lose the mech's personality from the blow to the head when he had that crash-landing.

"That's a relief. I don't want too many others to know about it before I give it to Prowl."

"It's a gift for Prowl?" Ratchet leaned in closer with a hopeful look on his face. "Tell me what it is? I promise I won't spoil the surprise for him!"

"Ratch'. No. Just no. You'll have to wait." Ratchet visibly wilted from disappointment, then perked up again.

"What about your flight suit? Prowl has been holding it, or rather what's left of it, for you. He's hoping that you might be able to salvage and repair it, but he won't let any of us near it, because he feels that he must respect your wishes to not let anyone but you work on it."

"That's good. I'll have to see what state it is in before making any decisions, but I DEFINITELY don't want Wheeljack tinkering with it. I am seriously a bit paranoid about what would happen if he got his hands on it…" Ratchet internally shuddered, imagining just a few of the many outcomes that would happen if Wheeljack somehow got ahold of and/or tried to replicate it.

"I would probably be the same way, Sunstreaker. Do you feel strong enough to be moved to your quarters? All of your personal belongings were returned to that room."

"I think I can make it with some help." Sunstreaker, with quite a bit of effort, sat up on the berth, and slowly slid off to stand up. Meanwhile, Ratchet was sending a message to Jazz and Sideswipe over the comm. to let them know that the yellow twin was awake. Not two minutes later, not two mechs, but three rushed into the room. At the front of the group was Sideswipe, with both SICs following close behind.

"Sunny! I was so worried about you!" Prowl managed to get in front of Sideswipe, and took hold of the yellow warrior's right hand to help him stand.

"Hey, Prowl. Forgive me?" Sunstreaker looked down at the SIC with hope and fear conflicting in his optics.

"Yes, Sunny, I forgive you." Prowl gave Sunstreaker the smallest of smiles, then returned his expression to the stoic mask he kept up when he was among others. Sideswipe came up on Sunstreaker's other side, and supported him as well.

"Thanks, guys. Well, Ratch' says that I need to stay in my quarters. Think you guys can help me get there?" Sunstreaker smirked at them all, and started to take a step forward.

"Of course we'll help you, Sunny!" Sideswipe and Prowl fell into step beside the warrior, each supporting him on their respective sides. Jazz followed close behind, ready to assist if he was needed. When they reached the twins' quarters, Sideswipe shifted how he was supporting his brother so that his right hand was free to key in the code to open the door. Once they were inside, Sunstreaker wearily sat down on the couch they had procured from Cybertron just before he had run away. Looking around, he saw everything in place, along with the large box from his cave leaning against the side of the couch.

"Hey, Prowl, I got you something while I was gone." Sunstreaker reached out with one shaking arm, and took hold of the box, struggling to pull its surprisingly light weight closer to him.

"You got something… for… me?" Prowl came over, and stood next to the box. The box was about the same height as the SIC, and appeared to be able to fit him inside of it if he positioned his doorwings properly. The tactician watched as Sunstreaker pushed the box open, then stared in shock.

"I made it for you. I used a hologram projector that Hound gave me to help me figure out how big I needed to make it, and I fashioned it so that it would accommodate your frame type. Unlike my own, this one is built to withstand the strain of battle, and has extra features specifically for battle." Motioning to the box, Sunstreaker had a hopeful look on his face. All Prowl could do was stare, for inside the box, there was a suit that resembled the one Sunstreaker had worn while he was AWOL. However, this one appeared to have stronger armor, and it had special features on the back and the mask to accommodate his doorwings and chevron. The design was also smaller than the one for Sunstreaker's suit, and the torso area had a different shape. It was painted in pure shining white and sparkling ebony black, with bright ruby red accents. The lenses for the optics were sapphire blue, and all in all, it was a beautiful creation.

"Sunny… I-I don't know what to say! You made this for me?" Prowl turned his gaze to the clearly exhausted yellow mech, and Sunstreaker nodded to him.

"I'll show you how to use it once I fully recover and repair or rebuild my own suit. I might even make myself a whole new suit that is better suited to battle than my old one. By the way, where is my old one?"

"I have it right here." Prowl took the tattered, energon-covered remains of the flight suit Sunstreaker had worn out of his subspace, and gently set them on the floor in front of the golden twin. Immediately, Sunstreaker picked up the suit, and made a pleased sound when he found it was still holding together.

"I can repair this. The wings are largely undamaged, and most of the damage was just to the outer plating. I'll need some supplies though…"

"They will be provided." Prowl stepped forward, and lightly brushed his hand over the warrior's left cheek. Sunstreaker looked up at him, and saw that the SIC's optics were filled with joy and wonder.

"Make that a promise, Copper?" Sunstreaker smirked, already knowing what the answer would be.

"It's a promise. Everything you need to repair your flight suit will be provided for you." The SIC went back to looking at the suit Sunstreaker had just given him. "I still don't know what a proper thank-you for this suit would be."

"Just helping me get the materials for repairing mine is thanks enough, Copper." Sunstreaker had already taken a small welding device out of his subspace, and was carefully repairing the few rips in the wings of his suit. Watching in awe, the other three mechs couldn't figure out where the rips had been in the wings once the warrior was done with them. Sunstreaker went on to start repairs on the torso of his suit, but started growling when he saw that there were large portions missing from it. "Slag. Looks like I'm going to need quite a bit of supplies to completely fix this fragging thing."

"Just write up what you need, and it will be supplied to you." Prowl handed the warrior a blank datapad, then went back to admiring the flight suit Sunstreaker had made for him.

"Hey, Copper, why don't you try it on?" Sunstreaker motioned to the suit with the welding tool he still held in his hand, a smirk on his face. Prowl looked at him in surprise, then had a thoughtful expression as he considered it.

"I am not sure I know how to put the suit on. I have not had anything like it before." Prowl shrugged helplessly, but was surprised when Sunstreaker set the welding tool, datapad, and damaged flight suit aside, and stood up, using the large box as support.

"I'll tell you how. Just get it out of the box." The next hour and a half were spent with Sunstreaker giving the SIC directions while the other two mechs watch the tactician just about transform into a dragonesque creature. Once the suit was completely on, Jazz and Sideswipe stared in awe, while Sunstreaker nodded in approval.

"Prowler, looks like you've got a new toy to play with." Sideswipe smirked at the SIC, while Prowl turned nervously towards Sunstreaker.

"Did I put it on correctly?"

"Yep. You sure did, Copper." Sunstreaker sat back down on the couch with a sigh of exhaustion. It had been a long day, and he was still recovering.

"When are ya' gonna give 'im lessons ta' fly?" Jazz was practically bouncing up and down in excitement. "An' can ya' make one fo' meh too?"

"Jazz, one thing at a time. Before I make any more suits, I'm going to repair mine, all right? Also, I cannot teach Prowl to fly until I fully recover from my injuries and completely repair my suit." Sunstreaker went back to fixing up what he could on his suit, after completing the list of materials he needed to completely fix it.

"I think you could at least tell Prowl how to activate his wings, Sunny." Sideswipe gently nudged his twin, who let out an aggravated sigh.

"Sides, I cannot exactly leave my room right now, and he wouldn't be able to fully extend his wings in here, all right?"

"Fine."

"It's all right, I can wait." Prowl started to take off the flight suit. "I will wait to show this to the others as well."

"Fine by me. Just please tell Ratchet before not knowing drives him insane."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

After around five months had come and gone, with the whole Ark wondering if Sunstreaker even existed anymore, he finally came out of his room. He was still a bit shaky, even after months of rest and recovery, but he was there.

"Well, look who FINALLY decided to come out." Cliffjumper's usual stinging way of speaking caused the warrior to almost wince, but he caught himself, and continued to the rec room. When he got there, the first one to notice him was Prowl, who hurriedly stood up to assist him.

"Sunny, you should be resting." The SIC took hold of one golden yellow hand, and looked up at him with a concerned expression.

"Copper, I've been resting for the past five months. I think that if I had spent any more time in the same room, I would have gone mad." The yellow mech smirked at the SIC, then walked slowly towards the table that Prowl had been seated at. When he sat down, he gave a soft sigh as his legs thanked him for giving them a break.

"Sunny, would you like some energon?" The SIC sat down next to Sunstreaker, his doorwings perked up, revealing to the warrior that he was ready to assist where needed.

"Nah, had some in my quarters. I kinda got back into the hang of energon preparation when I was caring for Jazz when I was on that mountain, and I've been practicing. I dug up some of my old recipes, and found some that are actually good for bots recovering from accidents that leave them injured. I figured that, since it works for that, it would probably work for those wounded from battle. Ratchet told me that I'm actually healing faster than he expected." Sunstreaker took a box out of his subspace, looked around with a smirk, and opened it. Immediately, the room was filled with a tantalizingly delicious aroma, and every pair of optics in the room were suddenly turned in his direction.

"What IS that?!"

"Smells good!"

"Can I have some?"

"When did you make it?"

"Please give me some, Sunstreaker!"

"Everyone, please calm down." The SIC, calm as ever, looked around the room, and saw Sideswipe just coming in, then freeze.

"Sunny… you actually started preparing energon again?" The red twin quickly made his way through the crowd, and looked into the box. Inside, there was an energon cake with the words ' _Happy Creation Day, Ironhide!_ ' on it. It was artfully decorated, and there was even a realistic energon-frosting blaster at the top of the words.

"Yeah. I didn't think that Ironhide remembered what today was, so…" Sunstreaker picked up the box, and held it out to the red Weapons Specialist. "Happy Creation Day, 'Hide!"

"Sunstreaker, you-I-thanks." The red mech took the box, tears forming at the corners of his optics. "Ah didn' think that anyone remembered anymo', so I just stopped remindin' ev'ryone." Ironhide then noticed the electrum-plated knife in the box beside the cake, and carefully took it out. Smiling, the Weapons Specialist sliced the cake, and took the slice with the gun on it for himself. Immediately, everyone else claimed a slice for themselves, and someone ran out of the room to tell everyone else. Soon, there was a full-blown party in the rec room to celebrate Ironhide's Creation Day, but Sunstreaker had to leave early, because he was still recovering. Prowl opted to go with the warrior, gently guiding him back to the quarters the warrior shared with his twin brother.

"Sunny, that was a very nice thing you did for Ironhide. I am surprised you remembered his Creation Day, when everyone else had forgotten." Prowl's voice was soft, as the turned down the corridor that led to the twins' quarters.

"I remember everyone's Creation Days, Prowl. I've never forgotten, even though everyone else has." Sunstreaker looked down at the floor as they walked. "It's like that one human femme told us, Prowl. Everyone needs something to hope for. I remember Creation Days, because, somehow, they give me hope that this war will have to end sometime. What was that human's name… oh! I remember! Her name was AirStrikeTF!" Sunstreaker turned to his door, and keyed in the code. When he turned the lights on in his quarters, Prowl could see the now-repaired flight suit hanging on the wall, giving the appearance that it was never damaged in the first place.

"So, it's fully functional again?"

"Yeah. But don't get the idea that you'll get to learn to fly any time soon. Ratch' says that I'm still not strong enough to even attempt to fly again yet." The twin ran his fingers along the edges of the mask hanging on the wall, then turned to lie down on his berth. "I'm tired. See you in the morning, Copper."

"Sleep well, Sunny." The SIC turned off the lights, and left the room, closing the door behind him.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **TO BE CONTINUED...**


	2. Love and Negotiations

Just three weeks later, a yellow mech was standing in front of the flight suit hanging on the wall, smirking.

"Looks like it's time, old friend. You're fully repaired, and I'm fully recovered. It's time to fly." The mech took the suit off of the wall, and quickly put it on in a record time of four and a half minutes. As he walked out of the room, he saw Prowl come to join him, also wearing a flight suit. "You ready, Copper?"

"I've been ready for quite some time now, Sunny." The SIC smiled at his beloved, and the two walked out of the Ark, hand in hand. To their surprise, the entire Ark crew was outside, waiting for them.

"Wow, Sunstreaker! You do nice work with those suits!" Wheeljack immediately rushed up to them, while the others just stood there with their mouths hanging open.

"Wheeljack, PLEASE do not try to tinker with these suits. One wrong thing, and you plummet. Smash to the ground. Die. Offline. One with the Allspark. Eternal shutdown. Snuffed. Shall I go on?" The yellow warrior leveled his emerald glare with the optics of the inventor, who stared at him in awe.

"How many different descriptions for death do you KNOW?!" If Sunstreaker could have seen the inventor's entire face, he would have laughed at his open-mouthed expression.

"Oh, I could go on for quite a while, actually." Sunstreaker smirked at the inventor, then turned back to Prowl, who was standing off to the side, ready for his first flight lesson. "You ready Prowl?"

"As ready as I'll ever be. What are we starting with?" The barely-recognizable SIC tilted his head to the side slightly, in a questioning gesture.

"I was thinking we'd start off with either ground takeoffs or gliding. Which one do you think?" Sunstreaker cocked his head at the SIC in return, letting him choose which one.

"Logically, the gliding lessons would be easiest, so that will be my choice." Prowl walked over to the warrior, ready for his training.

"Good. First, let's climb to one of the lowest ledges on the volcano so we can do short-distance first, and so you don't hurt yourself too badly if you fall by accident." Sunstreaker led the way, and they were soon standing on a ledge about twenty feet from the ground. "All right, first, let me show you how to deploy your wings. First, you need to actually know where the pockets for your hands are. See those hand-shaped slots on the sides of your lower thighs?" The warrior saw the SIC nod an affirmative. "Good. Those are the pockets that contain the hand controls. Remember, only your longer fingers, not the thumbs. The thumbs operate the special controls near the wrist, which I will get to later. Now, you bring your hands back slightly, like this." Sunstreaker first made sure that Prowl was watching, and brought his hands just slightly behind his lower thighs.

"After that, then what? I've seen you activate your wings before, but it was always too swift to accurately see what you were doing." Prowl watched attentively, and was asking questions that Sunstreaker knew he could answer.

"After you bring your hands back like this, you need to bring them forwards FAST so that the pressure will detach the wings from the rest of the suit. Like THIS!" Sunstreaker brought his hands forward over the outside of his lower thighs, and Prowl noticed that his hands caught on the barely noticeable slots on those parts of the suit. As the warrior's arms continued going forward and up, the wings stretched out, and Prowl had to scoot back from the warrior a bit to give his wings room. "Ok, now you try!"

"A-all right…" Nervously, Prowl copied Sunstreaker's movements, and ended up doing it perfectly on the first try. Now, the SIC looked to the warrior for the next set of instructions. "How do I operate the wings to glide?"

"All right, if you move your fingers, you will notice that the 'fingers' of the wings move with them. Those controls can alter your flight path, through subtle manipulation of air currents. When gliding, it is usually best to stretch the wings as far as they can go, and steer using the specially-made 'tail' of the suit. You need to be in flight to activate that, though. Now, watch as I take off." Sunstreaker spread the wings as far as they would go, and leaped off of the ledge, gliding a short distance to land safely on the ground. He turned, and called back up to Prowl. "Try it now! I know you can do it!"

"I can do this…" For the first time since he was in the Academy, he was feeling like he had to impress his 'teacher', so that he could get the best skills possible. Gathering his courage, and holding the memories of the many times he had seen Sunstreaker gliding with the flight suits, as well as the time where Sunstreaker had just then shown him what to do, Prowl leaped off of the ledge. There was a slight breeze, and Prowl realized that the warrior had angled his flight so that he caught as much of that breeze as possible. Trying to do the same, Prowl found that he was having a hard time holding his arms steady for the flight.

"Prowl! Remember the extra features I built in for your doorwings?!" Sunstreaker had just called up to the SIC, and when Prowl looked down, he nodded. "Good! Try to angle your flight and straighten out using that extra feature!"

"I'll try!" Prowl focused, and started to angle his doorwings, and he found himself starting to straighten out, and he found that the extra feature was like a second set of smaller wings that helped him stay aloft. They weren't for flapping, but if angled correctly, it could smooth out a flight. After a few more seconds, he found himself standing on his own two feet on solid ground. Straightening after his first landing, Prowl was amazed at the sudden roar of cheers coming from the gathered Autobots. Looking to his flight instructor, Prowl suddenly got a warm feeling in his spark as the warrior smiled at him with a satisfied expression.

"Good job, Prowl. I think you'll get the hang of flying faster than I thought you would." Sunstreaker suddenly put away his own wings, and motioned for Prowl to do the same. "We've already used up our allotted hour for flight training today, so let's have you put up the gear, and I'll be checking on my own suit to make sure it's still in top condition." Sunstreaker walked into the Ark, leaving Prowl standing outside, surrounded by his comrades.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

When Prowl finally got away from the crowd of Autobots and put away his suit, he went down to the rec room for some energon. He found Sunstreaker already there, and was shocked to see that the warrior's expression was sad.

"Is something the matter, Sunny? I thought I did well in flight training today." The warrior looked up at the SIC, and smiled sadly.

"It's not that, Copper. It's just… training another to fly after so long brought back memories of when I was teaching myself. I didn't have a teacher, because I was the one to invent the flight suit. I remembered all the times I crashed, and one time it was so bad, I was stuck in bed for my Creation Day so I could recover. Sides and I didn't trust any doctors except for Ratch' back then, and we couldn't go to Ratch', so I learned how to repair." Sunstreaker gave a humorless chuckle. "When I had finally gotten the hang of it, I joined a dancing group, but shortly after our fifth performance, the Enforcers started to crack down on performing groups, and I didn't know why. Right after my first performance, I had my fire-breathing component installed so that I could properly dance the 'Predacon Battle' performance. Every time we had a Predacon-themed dance, I was the star, because of my suit and my fire-breathing. I don't know what made me do it, but I left the stage for the gladiatorial rings when they finally seemed to completely ban performing on a stage. At least, that's what it felt like."

"How come you didn't use your fire in the gladiatorial arena?" Prowl sat down next to the warrior, purely curious now that the warrior was telling him about himself. Sunstreaker looked at him with a small smile on his face.

"It was for performances only. Plus, I was the only fire-breathing mech on Cybertron. I had installed it into myself, so that I didn't give away my identity. Besides, the performing and gladiatorial matches were just side jobs. Back then, my main focus was art. But… I don't think that very many of my paintings on Cybertron even exist anymore." The warrior's face fell into a frown again. "Mirage might have a few, though I highly doubt it since the original Tower fell down in flames. Most of the galleries that held my paintings in theme were also destroyed. Some of the privately owned ones might still exist, and I know that I have one in my room right now. It was my favorite out of all the paintings I had created." Sunstreaker started to fiddle with the energon cube he was holding, and a tear rolled down his face. "I remember… I once gave a painting to a poor family, a painting that was worth well over ten thousand credits, and they sold it to go on to a happy life. When the war began, I checked for that family's house after Iacon was first attacked, only to find it destroyed. I searched the rubble for any survivors, only to find them all dead. Even their three month old sparkling femme had been killed." The warrior was obviously trying to hold back more tears, trying to stop the flood of old memories from coming to the surface.

"Sunny… I'm sorry you lost your friends…" Prowl tried to comfort his beloved by rubbing circles on the warrior's back.

"It wasn't just them that I lost, Prowl. I helped a lot of families get back on their feet again by giving them paintings during the Golden Ages, but when the war started, most of them were killed." Sunstreaker glanced at Prowl out of the corner of his optics, then, with a shaky voice, spoke again. "Th-the only one o-of those families I ever f-found alive was little Bee. H-his parents… his siblings… h-he never even knew them. He was too young to remember. He doesn't even know what I tried to do for his family…" Trailing off, the warrior broke down in sobs, remembering all of those families he had helped through his artistry, and had eventually ended up dead.

"Is that why you try to protect others, Sunny? Because you believed that you failed? Is that also why you are extremely protective of Bumblebee?" Prowl was shocked by what had been revealed to him. Nobody had ever seen that side of the warrior since the war began, and without Bumblebee knowing it, Sunstreaker had played a huge part in the little yellow minibot's life. "How… how old was Bee when you found him?"

"He was only two weeks old. And I wouldn't have found him if he hadn't started crying when I was just about to give up." Sunstreaker buried his face in his hands, and slumped over the table, shuddering from the cries that racked his body.

"That's so young… And he feels that the only family he ever had was the other minibots, as well as us officers…" Prowl had, by this time, wrapped his arms around the yellow twin in a hug, trying to calm him down. "It's all right, you did your best to help those families. And I know that, if you ever decide to tell Bee, he would thank you."

"But Prowl, the other minibots would tell him I was lying to try to get into his favor! I know them! They would never believe me." Sunstreaker was now clinging to the SICs arms like the officer was a lifeline, trying to slow his own sobs so that he could deal with the sorrow as he always had.

"Perhaps you should just start small, Sunny. Try to understand, that they don't believe that you can change. But I see now that you have changed since the beginning of the war. You used to let it all out, but now you just hold it all in, and that's not good for you. I knew from the start, back when we met as sparklings, that you had a good spark. Remember, it was me who pulled you out to play with the rest of the sparklings. I knew that you were like me. We had both suffered in our earliest days. As sparklings, the two of us were like best friends." Prowl started to stroke the top of the warrior's head, and slowly, the twin stopped crying, and simply leaned into the SIC.

"Prowl?"

"Yes Sunny?"

"Do you think that Bee would forgive me for keeping my connection to his family a secret?"

"I think he would. He's a very forgiving mech."

"Thanks… for everything, Prowl."

"You are welcome."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

The yellow warrior was lying on his berth that night, looking at the underside of the berth above him while he thought about what Prowl said to him when the memories had come flooding unbidden through his mind. _Maybe I_ should _tell Bee about his family and what I did for them… maybe._ Sunstreaker turned over onto his side, staring off into the darkness of the quarters he shared with his twin, Sideswipe. He could hear his brother snoring softly on the berth above him, but it didn't really bother him. He suddenly reached into his subspace, and pulled out an old Cybertronian toy. It wasn't shiny anymore, but the metal was still unblemished by rust. The bright crystals that had been used for optics had chipped a bit, but that didn't matter. It was still the old toy he had gotten from Optimus when the twins were still living with the Prime in the Tower. Pulling the toy close to him, the warrior finally managed to turn off his optics.

"Good night, Mr. Foxy…"

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Prowl sat in the dark that night, thinking about what he had learned from talking with Sunstreaker earlier. The mech was more complicated than the SIC originally thought, so he had to rethink his entire idea of how the warrior acted. He was reviewing eons of memories with the yellow twin, and he found a pattern. Before the war, Sunstreaker would stay in the house he had bought for him and Sides, painting pictures of the most beautiful things, and a few things that were mysterious and strange. Sometimes, when the artist had lost his inspiration, he would go off on some journey to find it again. Farther back, Prowl remembered the times when the six sparklings that lived in Iacon Tower would go to school together, walking in a group, with the twins at the front and the back, and the other four in the middle. It was like an elongated hexagon, their little procession. Now, the SIC realized that the twins were protecting them.

"How wrong we all were…" Prowl suddenly remembered one incident that happened while heading to school one day. The twins were in their usual spots in the group, Sideswipe at the front, and Sunstreaker at the back. Suddenly, there had been a pitch-black mech that had charged at them, and the four sparklings in the middle could do nothing to defend themselves. Prowl had been cowering, afraid of the mech, because that black mech was one of the agents of the scientist that had experimented on him. Prowl had covered his optics with his hands, wishing for it all to go away, but when nothing happened to him, he had dared to peek out, only to see Sunstreaker standing protectively in front of him.

-FLASHBACK-

 _"Stay away from my friend!" The small black and white Praxian sparkling peeked out from behind his fingers, and saw a sparkling that was a few inches taller than him standing in front of him, facing the scary black mech from the lab. The scary mech simply laughed at the sparklings, and reached out to grab Prowl. The black and white sparkling curled up behind his friend, willing for it all to go away, for himself to be back home, safe in his big brother's arms._

 _"Cowardly sparkling, COME HERE!" The mech tried to grab him again, but when the mech let out a cry of pain, Prowl looked up. Sunstreaker was still standing in front of him, but this time, there was energon dripping from claws that had mysteriously appeared on his fingers._

 _"I said to STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIEND!" Sunstreaker tensed in an attack position, and Prowl could tell that the black and yellow sparkling seemed to know what he was doing. The sparkling seemed more grown-up than he really was, standing at the ready to defend._

 _"Why you little…" The mech pulled out a gun, and all of the other sparklings, including Prowl, screeched in fear, except for Sideswipe. Both of the twin sparklings seemed to explode in a raging fury, Sideswipe going for the gun, while Sunstreaker slashed at the mech's joints. The other four sparklings huddled together, scared of the big black mech who was trying to take one of their number away, while also trying to figure out where their two newest friends had learned to fight. When the twins backed away from the mech, Sideswipe was holding the gun, and quickly taking out the ammo to see what it was._

 _"Stay away from friends or else!" Sunstreaker's sparkling voice was suddenly filled with a deadly tone, causing the mech to flinch, but he didn't back down. Even though energon dripped from his knee and elbow joints, the black mech attempted to grab Prowl again, but was stopped by a pair of blue hands that had suddenly grabbed the mech's shoulders. When Prowl looked up, he saw that their rescuer was the twins' adoptive father, Optimus Prime. The Prime was looking disapprovingly at the black mech, and the small black and white Praxian sparkling started to have hope. However, when he looked at Sunstreaker, he saw that the yellow twin was staring at the energon on his hands, unmoving, while his brother tried to snap him out of it. The deep baritone voice of Optimus Prime drew Prowl's attention back to the two adults._

 _"I believe these fine lads were trying to tell you to leave them alone, now weren't they?" Prime hoisted the mech into the air by his shoulders, and Prowl could tell that lifting the mech like that had hurt him. Then, the mech painfully pointed at the twins._

 _"Those two attacked me for no reason! They should be restrained! I was just passing through, and those two jumped me! I was asking the other sparklings for help!" Prowl knew the mech was lying, and he hoped that Optimus wouldn't believe him. Suddenly, Sunstreaker spoke up for the first time since he had stopped attacking the black mech._

 _"You lie! I not want to attack, but you wanted to hurt friend!" Sunstreaker was still in slight shock from the sight of the mech's energon on his own hands, but he had snapped out of it enough to tell exactly what happened. "I protect friend! You tried to take Prowl away! He not belong to you! He my friend!" Sunstreaker glared daggers at the black mech, and moved to stand between the mech and Prowl._

 _"That sparkling belongs to my master, who has demanded that it be brought back to him! I always follow orders, and I DO NOT INTEND TO FAIL!" With that, the mech wrenched his shoulders out of the Prime's grip, and lunged at the black and white Praxian sparkling. Prowl covered his optics and huddled on the sidewalk, dreading the inevitable, but once again, nothing happened. When Prowl finally peeked out, he saw the mech lying motionless on the ground, and Sunstreaker hugging the Prime's leg, crying, his clawed hands dripping with fresh energon._

 _"I dina want to, Dad! I only did it 'cause he was gonna take Prowl away!" Sunstreaker was back to being the insecure sparkling that the others all knew, save for the extended claws and the energon dripping from them._

 _"It's all right, Sunstreaker. You protected him. You only did what you had to." Optimus was rubbing the yellow and black sparkling's back with one hand, and that action was slowly calming the distraught sparkling down. Soon, Enforcers came, along with the caretakers of the other sparklings._

 _"What happened here?!" Smokescreen, Prowl's older brother, picked the Praxian sparkling up, and hugged him tight. "Are you okay, little brother?"_

 _"Mean black mech tried to take me away! I didn't want to go!" Prowl buried his face in his brother's neck, sobbing from the fear that had just caught up to him._

 _"It's all right. You're safe now…" Smokescreen rubbed Prowl between the doorwings, and that was slowly calming him down. "It's all right. Prime, did you kill this mech?"_

 _"No. It was actually Sunstreaker. He was allowed to be adopted by Elita and myself, because the twins believed they wouldn't have to kill mechs again. Looks like they were both wrong. At least this time it was in self-defense, instead of being the will of their original parents." Prime's voice was still as strong as ever, but there was a bit of regret as well. "I should have thought ahead for this. Perhaps it would be best to send these young ones to school with a guard from now on. It would be safer for them, and it would lessen the chance of mechs like this one trying to take them away or hurt them."_

 _"Agreed. What do you think, Musical?" Prowl turned his face just enough to see his older brother facing Jazz's caretaker, who was actually the visored sparkling's aunt._

 _"I think that would be best. I don't think that I could rest easily otherwise." Musical bent down, and picked up Jazz and Red Alert. "Red Alert's caretaker couldn't come, so he could stay at my place until that Security mech gets off duty." Prowl looked to the twins' adoptive father, and saw that Optimus had by this time cleaned all of the energon off of the twins' hands. There was no trace of the dangerous creatures that had seemed to take the two sparklings' places, but the Praxian sparkling couldn't help but wonder where they had learned to… kill._ /i

-END FLASHBACK-

Prowl shuddered when he remembered what had transpired that day, but kept the image of the defensive black and yellow sparkling in his mind's eye as he walked to his storage closet, and went about gathering the meager art supplies he had received from Sunstreaker as a Christmas present the year before. He also kept all of the instructions the warrior had given him on painting in mind, as he started to put down the initial sketch of what he wanted to draw.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Has anyone seen Bumblebee?" Sunstreaker had looked all over the Ark, with no sign of the yellow minibot anywhere.

"Have you tried the firing range outside?" Smokescreen didn't look away from the screen in front of him as he answered the yellow twin.

"No. Guess I should go look." Sunstreaker walked out of the monitor room, on a route leading out of the Ark. Once he got outside, he saw that the only one at the firing range was the yellow minibot he was looking for. "Bee! I need to talk to you!"

"What?" In his surprise, the minibot accidentally fired his blaster, and shot Sunny in the foot.

"OW! What the frag was that for?!" Sunstreaker immediately sat down on the ground, massaging his now-sore left foot. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow… That REALLY hurts…"

"I'm SO sorry, Sunstreaker! I didn't mean to!" Bumblebee rushed over to the yellow warrior, looking at him worriedly. "What did you mean when you said you needed to talk to me?"

"Well… it's about your family… your original family." Sunstreaker was suddenly uncomfortable, because he had only told Prowl and Sideswipe about it so far.

"Really? Did you know them?" Bumblebee was suddenly hopeful.

"Know them? I helped get them out of poverty! They were a nice bunch, and you even had a trio of caring siblings. The eldest was a tall, strong mech, while the other two were femmes. Your parents had been living with them on the streets for about a year when I found them. To help them out, I gave them one of my paintings. By that time, my art had become so highly thought of, that the value was the highest on Cybertron. The painting I gave them was worth about two million credits, and when they said that they couldn't afford to pay for it, I told them, 'I am not looking for any payment other than your promise that you will sell the painting for money, and use that money to build a new future for your family.' They thanked me, and we stayed in touch after that. I was still quite young compared to other master painters, only about twenty thousand years old, and I had only moved out of Prime's home three years before I met your parents. You see, Prime is my adoptive father, and he taught me that it is better to give than to gain. I found that to be true, for every time I gave a poor, homeless family one of my high-value paintings, I felt better about myself. Now, most of those families are gone, destroyed by this accursed war! You, Bee, are the only tie I have left to that past of giving. You are also the only one of those bots I could save. You are a miracle, Bumblebee. Don't ever forget that." Sunstreaker had been repairing his own foot as he was speaking, so he was able to stand up when he finished. "Bee, please don't forget what I have told you. You know me, so you should know that I don't tell others about my past easily. You were too young to be able to remember, but I was the one who pulled you from the rubble of your family's house. You are a miracle in that a sparkling that was only a few weeks old survived the attack, and for that, I will always try to protect you."

"Sunstreaker, why are you telling me this?" Bumblebee reached out to the warrior as Sunstreaker began to walk back into the Ark. The yellow twin paused, and turned his head slightly to look at the minibot out of the corner of his optics, while still having his back to him.

"I am telling you this, because it is the right thing to do. You are too much a part of my past to not know, and you are also one of the few things that gives me hope in this war. Remember to stand proud and fight bravely, Bee, for it would make your parents proud to know that their only surviving child is fighting for the greater good." Sunstreaker turned his head to once again face the entrance to the Ark, and resumed walking, leaving the yellow minibot behind him in tears from his words. Words that struck right to the spark.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Sunstreaker really told you all of that?" Cliffjumper looked astonished as he stared at the yellow minibot who had the exact same frame as he did. "Are you sure he wasn't lying?"

"He would have no reason to lie to me, Cliff. Besides, my lie detectors are on all the time, and they never told me he was lying. Also, you didn't see him when he told me. His expression… made it seem like he was still suffering on the inside from those memories. Cliff, he's probably been through more suffering than you've been through, than MOST of us have been through! Probably the only one who's been through more is Blue!" Bumblebee was starting to get angry at the other minibot, and surprised them both by slapping Cliffjumper in the face. "Get with it, Cliff! Look beyond your grudges against him, and look at who he REALLY is! Haven't you noticed how he changes when you start antagonizing him?!"

"Bee, why are you asking me this?! He's probably a traitor who's trying to get the better of you and everyone else here!" Cliffjumper's mind started warring between believing his own views, and listening to the other minibot.

"I'm asking you this because it's related to another question I have for you, Cliff." Bumblebee started to calm down at this point, and looked at the other minibot with a sad expression. "When you antagonize him, do you know how much pain you put him through?"

 **0o0o0o0o0**

When Prowl finally finished the project he had assigned to himself, he admitted that it wasn't a masterpiece, but to him, it was good enough. When he glanced at the mirror, he saw that his normally black and white paint was streaked with different colors of paint that he had used in the past few hours. Grimacing at the thought that someone might question as to what he was doing if he just did nothing about it, he went to his own private washracks, scrubbing until every speck of that brightly-hued paint was gone. Coming out, he saw the painting he had created again, and smiled. It would be a perfect present for the warrior, if he chose to accept it. Primus only knows what his reaction would be, because it could stir up some terrible memories, and completely backfire on the SIC.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Sunstreaker walked through the corridors of the Ark, giving a grunt whenever someone tossed a greeting his way, only thinking about the day that it was. It had been SO LONG since anyone had celebrated anyone's Creation Days, until Sunstreaker had baked that cake for Ironhide. He keyed in the code to open the door to his quarters, and was shocked to see that there was a package on his berth. Glancing around warily, he saw that nobody was in the room, and so, he walked into his quarters, and picked up the package. It was wrapped in beautiful gold and silver paper, and Sunstreaker almost regretted opening it to see what was inside. Nothing could have prepared him for what it was.

"What in the name of Primus…" Sunstreaker's fingers trailed over the details of the painting he now held in his hand, trying to place where and when that had taken place. It was a painting of a black and yellow sparkling standing in front of a large, scary black mech. The sparkling's stance was protective, and was holding a hand behind him to motion whoever was behind him to stay put. A hand that was sticky with energon. There were claws on the hand, and Sunstreaker realized what the painting was focused on. Unable to help himself, he started to cry, hugging the painting to his chest as he curled up on his berth.

-FLASHBACK-

 _The black and yellow sparkling stood protectively in front of his best friend, tensed and ready to attack if the need arose. "Stay away from my friend!" In the sparkling's mind, there was another thing he wanted to say but didn't._ I don't want to have to hurt you, because I don't want to have to hurt anyone ever again. _The mech in front of him simply laughed, and reached out to grab the sparkling's best friend. He missed._

 _Cowardly sparkling, COME HERE!" He lunged for the black and white sparkling again. In response, Sunstreaker lunged at the mech, claws out, and slashed the mech across his face. Sunstreaker could hear his friend's scared whimpers over the cry of pain the mech let out, and glanced back for a second, only to see his friend curled up in a black and white ball of metal on the ground. He turned back to face the mech, feeling the energon drip off of his claws._

 _"I said to STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIEND!" Sunstreaker tensed, and crouched slightly into an attack position. Where there was once a hesitance to kill in his mind, there was now only the urge to destroy the threat, to defend what was, in his mind, the most valuable thing in the world._

 _"Why you little…" Sunstreaker saw the mech pull out a gun, and he felt a flash of panic in the back of his mind. Instead of panicking and losing control, he reached out over the twin bond to his brother._

 _ **.:Go for the gun. I'll go for his joints. We must protect.:.**_

 _ **.:Yes, we must protect our friends.:.**_ _Sideswipe's voice came over the bond, and the two attacked in unison. Out of the side of his vision, Sunstreaker saw his brother take hold of the gun, pulling at wires in the mech's wrist to make him let go of the weapon. Focusing on his own task, Sunstreaker used his claws to rip and tear at the mech's elbow and knee joints, before finally backing off to stand protectively in front of Prowl once more._

 _"Stay away from friends or else!" The black and yellow sparkling's voice changed from the normal range of tone for a sparkling to a dark, deadly tone honed from his earliest days of being a forced assassin. He saw the mech flinch, but he obviously didn't take the hint, because he attempted to grab the black and white Praxian sparkling again, despite his wounds, only to be stopped by a pair of familiar blue hands. The yellow sparkling suddenly became aware of the energon on his own hands, and stared at them. Then, Sunstreaker allowed his gaze to drift away from his enemy, and he started to relax when he saw that it was his adoptive father, Optimus Prime._

 _"I believe these fine lads were trying to tell you to leave them alone, now weren't they?" Prime lifted the mech into the air by the grip he had on the black shoulders, but the mech obviously decided to try to lie, and pointed a finger at Sunstreaker, and used his other hand to point at Sideswipe, who was busy taking apart the mech's gun._

 _"Those two attacked me for no reason! They should be restrained! I was just passing through, and those two jumped me! I was asking the other sparklings for help!" Sunstreaker started to growl softly, angered that the mech would lie so blatantly, when the Prime had obviously seen what had really happened. Then, he snapped._

 _"You lie! I not want to attack, but you wanted to hurt friend!" Sunstreaker once again took up his defensive posture. "I protect friend! You tried to take Prowl away! He not belong to you! He my friend!" He moved so he was once more in front of the black and white Praxian sparkling, holding an energon-covered, clawed hand behind him to motion for his friend to stay behind him._

 _"That sparkling belongs to my master, who has demanded that it be brought back to him! I always follow orders, and I DO NOT INTEND TO FAIL!" The mech was suddenly out of the Prime's grip, and was lunging towards Prowl, so Sunstreaker did the only thing he could think of to stop him. With practiced ease, the black and yellow sparkling jumped forwards, and sliced through the main fuel lines in the mech's throat. The mech fell to the ground, and Sunstreaker landed on the ground, panting. Suddenly, he ran to his adoptive father, and hugged his leg, starting to cry. As the energon dripped off of his own claws, he could feel a warm hand rubbing his back, and a soft, baritone voice comforting him._

-END FLASHBACK-

Sunstreaker hugged the painting closer, being careful not to damage it. As a tear rolled down his cheek, he remembered how much he had treasured Prowl's friendship back then, and how it had progressed to being something more in their time on Earth. A few days before he had run away all those months ago, he and Prowl had decided that they would become more than friends, and see where it would take them. They both admitted their feelings to each other, and had spent a lot of time thinking about the other whenever they were apart. Then, there was the chime of the door, signaling that someone wanted to enter.

"Who is it?"

"Prowl. May I come in, Sunny?"

"Sure." Sunstreaker walked over to the door, drying away his own tears on his way there, and opened it for the SIC. Prowl had a concerned expression, and Sunstreaker realized who the painting was from. "You made this for me, didn't you?"

"Yes. Do you… approve?" The answer from the yellow twin was a swift kiss that left the Praxian speechless for a few moments.

"Thank you, Prowl. I know how much that time must have meant to you… and I love you for caring about me so much." Sunstreaker drew Prowl in for a hug, and the SIC found himself loving every second of it. As the warrior had his arms around the Praxian, the side of Prowl's head was pressed against the yellow chestplate, and Prowl could hear the thrum of Sunstreaker's spark pulsing under the golden yellow plating. The SIC hugged the warrior back, and then the two separated.

"I'm glad you like it, Sunny. And… I love you too." With one last kiss, the SIC departed, and Sunstreaker went over to the wall, and hung the painting right beside the one he had painted himself of a beautiful sunset. When the warrior had gone to his berth to lie down, he was in recharge the moment his head hit the pillow.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

The next morning was awash with joy from Sunstreaker's spark. The yellow warrior stretched, and practically leaped off of his berth. It was a brand-new day, and it was also the day he was scheduled to accompany Prime and the rest of the Command Staff to a meeting, but he wouldn't be expected to participate in the negotiations with the human leaders unless needed, no, he would be allowed to roam the halls of the art museum the meeting was to take place in! He would get to see famous human exhibits! The artist spark in him was singing happily, as he went through his daily morning routine of touching up his paint job and getting himself waxed to look his best, as well as the new addition to the routine of cooking an energon breakfast. He dashed to the storage room that was given to him for a kitchen, and started to prepare his meal, then stopped short all of a sudden. Feeling a bit adventurous that day, he decided to let Prime know that he was going to prepare breakfast for the entire Command Staff!

"Prime, how about you and the other Senior Officers skip the rec room, and come down to my kitchen for breakfast? I'm thinking that you would all like it!"

* _I accept, and I will let the others know. Care to tell me what is on the menu?_ *

"It's a surprise! Now let them know! Breakfast is almost ready!" Sunstreaker ended the communication, and resumed cooking the energon meal he was making, adding little bits of minerals to add flavor, and even going so far as to put a dash of human sugar in the cubes that were for drinking! When it was all done, he heard the chime at the door. "Be there in a minute!" He quickly set up everything on the table that was in there, then ran to the door.

"Sunstreaker! I trust breakfast is ready? Smells good!" Prime was the first one at the door, and the yellow warrior could see that Ratchet, Jazz, Red Alert, Ironhide, Wheeljack, and Prowl were behind the Commander.

"Yep! Everything's on the table! Just pick a seat, and dig in!" Sunstreaker got out of the way, taking his own seat at the table as the officers entered.

"Wow, ya' do good cookin' 'Streaker!" Jazz sat down in the chair on the warrior's left side, while Prowl sat to Sunstreaker's right.

"Thanks! I just hope that Red trusts me enough to eat it, without having to be ordered by Prime!" Everyone but Red Alert chuckled at that, and they all started to eat without complaint. When they had finished the meal, all of the officers were in a decidedly better mood than they had woken up in, and the taste of the food was refreshing and delicious after having to eat military energon rations for eons.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Sunstreaker was revving with excitement as he followed the convoy of officers to the art museum that the negotiations were to take place in, and he was already trying to imagine the works of art that might be within the walls.

"Well, you seem excited, Sunny." Prowl had slowed to the point where he was driving alongside the golden yellow Lamborghini Countach, and Sunstreaker's engine revved again from his anticipation of where they were all headed.

"Prowl, this is the first chance I've gotten since coming to Earth to see an actual Art museum! Sculptures! Paintings! All sorts of Earth art and culture that I've never gotten to see before!" Sunstreaker sped up a bit, anxious to get there sooner.

"You do know that you are also to participate in the negotiations in some way, don't you? After all, you ARE the one here that has been hiding how intelligent you are, and how civil you can be. Don't tell me you've forgotten that time while you were recovering where you assisted Optimus in negotiations via the comm. link." If Sunstreaker had been in his bipedal mode, he would have been blushing.

"Aw, come on, Copper! I didn't help THAT much, did I?"

"You did. It was thanks to you that we were able to secure the trust of the Middle Eastern countries. They understand the ways of a warrior, and some of the ambassadors that will be here today will also be from warlike countries. We need a warrior here to help."

"Fine. Just as long as I still get time to explore the museum."

"Agreed." The Datsun sped up, and was once more driving alongside the huge 18-wheeler that was in the lead of the procession. Sunstreaker started reviewing everything he had learned about being a warrior, and how the ambassadors from the more warlike countries would react to him. As he went through the list of ambassadors, he saw that there were several from tribes in Africa, and when he looked at their histories, he found that he and they were very similar in views. This would be a piece of energon cake for him.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"I assure you, ambassador, that we DO have someone you can talk to that would understand your views."

"I will only speak with a fine and noble warrior who fights with his bare hands, Prime! My people are a warrior's people, and will only agree to the terms of a warrior!" The ambassador from one of the African tribes lifted the ceremonial spear he was holding, and brought the wooden end of it down onto the floor.

"Sunstreaker, would you please come to speak with the ambassador?" Optimus turned to face the yellow warrior, who nodded, and knelt down to get a better look at the dark-skinned man.

"I am Sunstreaker, frontline warrior for Optimus Prime. It is rare that I use a gun, and I prefer to fight with my own two hands, my claws." Sunstreaker held out his hands, extending his retractable claws to show that he tells the truth. The warrior winced when he saw his claws, realizing that he had forgotten to clean them after the last battle. But the energon on them was proof enough for the ambassador.

"Warrior Sunstreaker, you have the respect of my people and myself. I am honored to do negotiations with you." The ambassador bowed deeply to the warrior, who, in turn, bowed his head in respect for the ambassador.

"Now, what is it you wish to speak about, Noble Ambassador?" Sunstreaker remembered the highly-thought-of codes of respect that this specific tribe had, and had tried to be as civil as possible.

"I wish to request that the Autobots help my people to defend against these metal monsters you call the Decepticons! We do not have the advanced defenses that others have, and would like to request your assistance!" The Ambassador once again slammed the wooden end of his ceremonial spear against the floor, and Sunstreaker retracted his claws, holding one hand out to the ambassador.

"I will see what I can do. Would you like to come to a height where we can speak more comfortably?"

"I would. Many thanks, Noble Sunstreaker." The ambassador climbed onto the golden yellow hand, and stepped onto Sunstreaker's shoulder when the warrior brought him level with it.

"Now, what kinds of defenses were you thinking about?" Sunstreaker stayed cross-legged on the floor, so his movements would not accidentally cause the ambassador to fall to the ground.

"Metal walls around our cities, as well as the promise of support when we request it. For that, we need a better communication system, and we would also need weapons with which to fight the enemy! We do not want guns, however. We would like weapons that are more akin to the spears and swords of our ancestors!" The ambassador's voice was loud enough to hurt Sunstreaker's sensitive hearing, but the warrior showed no sign of his discomfort.

"I will see what I can do by speaking to my leader. I believe he will agree, however, so you have nothing to fear. In return, would you help the Autobots?" Sunstreaker raised an optic ridge in questioning at the ambassador.

"We would like to help your tribe in any way we can, Noble Sunstreaker! We have gold, silver, iron, steel, and many other natural resources in our lands!"

"Do you have oil, natural gas, or coal?" Sunstreaker named the things that would help the Autobots make energon, and the ambassador laughed heartily.

"We have those resources in a plentiful stream, Noble Sunstreaker! Just name it, and it will belong to your people!"

"Then I believe that a fair trade for our assistance in defending your tribe will be your assistance in gathering those resources to make our energy. Do we have an agreement?"

"It is so!"

"I will speak to my leader, and tell you what his decision is." Sunstreaker carefully let the ambassador back down to the ground, and went to talk to Prime. Once he had gained his permission, he returned.

"What did your tribe leader say?"

"He said that we have an agreement. Shall we shake on it in time-honored fashion?" The yellow twin held out one hand, waiting for the ambassador's response.

"We shall!" Taking hold of Sunstreaker's index finger, the two shook hands, and took Sunstreaker brought out a datapad to make the documentation. "What are you doing now, Noble Sunstreaker?"

"I am recording our agreement, so that the Autobots shall remember and honor it. We shall not fail you, Noble Ambassador." Sunstreaker finished the document, and signed his own name in the line that said 'Negotiator's Signature' "Would you please sign here on the line that says 'Warrior Tribe'?"

"I shall!" Taking hold of the spear-sized stylus, the ambassador skillfully wrote his name on the line indicated, and then handed the tool back to Sunstreaker. "It is done. All that is left is for your leader to sign, and our agreement is solid in brick and stone. A pity we cannot do a blood-oath, though."

"True. If I tried to do that, you'd probably get blood-poisoning from my energon. Sorry."

"It is fine. Just be sure that my people get the help we agreed upon."

"They shall have it." Sunstreaker walked over to Prime again, and handed him the datapad and stylus. "Prime, you need to sign on the last line to solidify the agreement."

"All right. I am glad you secured those resources for us, Sunstreaker. I believe that this tribe would make a valuable ally. I'll probably have to assign Wheeljack to the weapons project but…"

"Sir, I believe I could create the weapons the tribe has requested. Remember, I invented that flight suit that you guys like so much."

"True. You are assigned to the weapons project, then. It says here that we will allow a few members of the tribe to come stay at the Ark for parts of the year to learn about us and help with the weapons testing, is that true?"

"It is, Prime. It was the best solution I could come up with that would allow the people of the tribe to have a say in what the weapons will do."

"You really ARE smarter than you let on." Prime signed the document, and placed it into his subspace. Satisfied that his work was done, Sunstreaker contented himself with wandering the art museum to look at all the different works of art.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

When the officers and Sunstreaker arrived back at the Ark, the yellow warrior had a smug smirk on his face, completely pleased with himself for being able to help out in some key negotiations with the human leaders and ambassadors. Others saw his smug expression, and went out of their way to avoid him, all except for the officers.

"Sunny, I thank you again for assisting with the more warlike ambassadors. You truly helped out." Prime put a hand on the warrior's shoulder, and Sunstreaker smiled at him.

"It was actually pretty fun! I totally understood that guy. We're both pretty honor-bound when it comes to an agreement between warriors. Maybe I should do this politics thing more often." Sunstreaker waved to the Prime as he walked away. "I'll see you later. Right now, I need to get to work on that project you assigned me to."

"Good luck, Sunstreaker!" Optimus went back to his office, and pulled out all of the datapads with the new agreements on them. When he got to the one Sunstreaker had composed, he smiled under the facemask. He had taught his adopted son well.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Sunstreaker sat in the middle of the floor in the quarters he shared with his twin, Sideswipe, with papers and writing utensils all around him. Half of the papers were blank, while the others contained designs for the weapons he was to make for the humans in that African tribe. He kept throwing papers to the side as he rejected them, trying to find a way to create weapons that the humans could figure out how to use. Finally, he hit the jackpot. On the paper before him, there was a sketch of an energy-blade spear, and written beside it were calculations of energy-wave blast strengths and sizes, as well as the possibilities of backfiring. He would need to get help from the African tribe, but he believed that it would work.

"Finally got something accomplished…" Then, Sunstreaker heard his door open, and when he spun around on the floor, he saw Sideswipe staring at him open-mouthed.

"Bro, what the SCRAP are you DOING?!" Sideswipe had been holding a small stack of datapads from Prime, and in his shock he dropped them. Sunstreaker panicked, and slid forwards, catching each datapad before it could shatter on the ground.

"You need to be careful with these, you DOLT!" Sunstreaker checked his instructions and transfer documents on the datapads, and sighed in relief. "If you had broken these, I wouldn't know what I was supposed to do for the project I've been assigned to! These datapads have the information I need for the rotation transfer of a few members of that African tribe I helped negotiate with, and then I would have also lost their trust! This is a warrior tribe I'm dealing with, Sides!" Standing up, the yellow twin whacked the red twin in the back of the head with his hand, and then turned around, and went to sit back down amongst the papers on the floor.

"Ow! Well you can at least keep the floor clear!" Sideswipe tiptoed through the papers, being careful not to step on any, and one of them caught his optic. Picking it up, he gasped in shock, and spun to face his brother. "Sunny, WEAPONS?! What in the name of PRIMUS are you THINKING?!"

"Bro, it's part of the agreement! This is the project assigned to me, and I've only made ONE design that has even the SLIGHTEST chance of not BLOWING UP when the humans use them!" Sunstreaker held up the paper that had been lying in front of him. "Look at this! It's an energy spear! It has a button that, when pressed, will shoot out the energy spearhead, and it will automatically create another one!"

"That's… actually pretty cool, bro!" Sideswipe was suddenly completely interested in what his brother was doing, and bent down to get a closer look at the sketch. "Can you make a larger version for me, too? PLEASE?"

"Bro, don't you have a big enough arsenal already?" The yellow twin's voice was playful, as he went back to doing calculations and designs for the inner workings of the weapon.

"Bro, you can NEVER have enough cool toys of death in this war!" Sideswipe tried to keep up with the complex equations his brother was formulating, but eventually, he was totally lost. "How do you ever KNOW most of this stuff?"

"Simple. I am calculating the distance that the energy blade can reach before exploding, and how long it will take for the new blade to form. I learned how to do this from our days in the Academy, remember? Plus, it helps to have Perceptor and Wheeljack as secret tutors." Sunstreaker finished his equations, and looked them over. "If my calculations are correct, I believe that this is doable."

"Well, what are you waiting for, bro? Head on down to the lab and get to work!"

"I have to wait until the transfers from the African tribe come to assist me, Sides. I need to get their assistance so I can be sure to make it easy for them to handle." Sunstreaker set the design aside, and started to gather all of the other papers together. "I also need to get this cleaned up. Hey, do you know where Prowl went?"

"Far as I know, he's actually looking for you." Sideswipe peeked out of the door, and saw the SIC coming down the corridor. "And here he comes now."

"Slag it! The room's still a mess!" Sunstreaker went into overtime cleaning up the papers on the floor, trying to get it all cleaned up before Prowl got there. "Slag slag slag slag slag…"

"Better hurry, bro! He's almost here!" Sideswipe ducked back into the room, and started to help clean up. Sunstreaker grabbed the finished design that he had written his calculations on, and set it onto his small art desk. Thankfully, they got all of the rejected designs cleaned up before they heard the chime at the door. Upon hearing said chime, Sunstreaker ran to the door, and opened it.

"Hey there, Copper. You were looking for me?"

"Yes. I believe you were working on the design for the humans' weapons, am I correct?"

"Yep. I've got one that I believe will work. Want to see it?"

"Certainly." Prowl walked into the room, and his gaze fell upon the paper on the art desk. Before he could move, Sunstreaker went over to said art desk, and picked up the paper.

"This is the one that I finished. I'm not sure if you would be able to understand my calculations, but I can explain the basics of what it will do."

"Please do."

"Well, this is an energy-bladed spear, and when you press the button on the metal shaft, it will fire the blade out, and immediately after firing, another blade will form. The launched blade will go approximately 3000 yards before exploding, so it doubles as an explosives launcher. I'll need to speak with the African tribe to help me with the size ratio, but I believe it will work."

"Perhaps you might be able to work faster on the actual construction if you had a skilled human working with you?" Prowl raised an optic ridge at his beloved, and Sunstreaker seemed to brighten.

"Yeah! I could ask Chip, or Spike, or Sparkplug, maybe Carly…"

"I was thinking of our inter-dimensional human friend, AirStrikeTF." Prowl smiled at the surprised expression on the warrior's face.

"Hey… you think it's possible? After all, she has smaller hands than most humans her age do, and she's pretty wicked with her own inventions. She seems like she is wise beyond her years sometimes."

"And sometimes she still acts like a human child, I know. But I believe she is the best option for an assistant for you, Sunny." The SIC then took out a device that looked like a Cybertronian-sized cell phone. "She gave me this. It's an inter-dimensional cellular communication device, capable of sending signals to similar devices throughout the dimensions."

"Think you could give her a call?"

"I'll see what I can do. But we'll do that later. For now, how about we go and take a walk through the woods? Hound told me about a beautiful meadow not far from here."

"Sounds like a wonderful idea, Copper. Count me in!" Sunstreaker set down his design in a locked drawer of his desk, and leaned down slightly to plant a kiss on the SIC's lips.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **TO BE CONTINUED…**


	3. Sparklings!

After spending a day and a night in the meadow about three miles from the Ark, a black and white police car Datsun and a golden yellow Lamborghini drove along the dirt road that wound through the forest, as they headed back to base. When they were halfway there, they got a message from Prime.

* _Sunstreaker, Prowl, where are you? We have a situation now, and we need you back at base!_ * Sunstreaker activated his comm. link, and responded.

* _We are currently heading back to base. We were camping out in the meadow that Hound discovered a few days ago. What's the situation?_ *

* _Well, for one, the transfers from that African tribe have arrived, and someone else came. Someone we have not heard from in over 5 million years._ *

* _Mind being a little more specific, sir?_ * Prowl's voice joined the conversation, and the focus shifted to him.

* _Prowl, this may be a bit of a shock for you, but it's your father._ *

* _WHAT?!_ *

 **0o0o0o0o0**

The two vehicles skidded to a stop when they arrived at base. They had both gone way beyond the speed limit trying to get there faster, and the humans didn't mind. They knew that, if PROWL was speeding, there was a serious situation somewhere. Both mechs transformed, and the SIC gaped at the mech who turned to face him. The mech was Praxian in design, yet he was just as tall as Sunstreaker. He was silver, black, and gold, with a dark blue chevron, and sweeping silver doorwings with blue designs on them. He had mounted shoulder-cannons, and his very frame bespoke a regality that few could rival.

"It… can't be…" The mech's voice was soft, yet it had a kind of courage in it that spoke of eons of fighting for his own survival. "Prowl… is it really you?"

"A-are you my father?" Prowl's voice was shaky, unused to saying the word.

"Of course I am. But you wouldn't remember. You were only a week old when you were taken from us. Tell me, what has happened while I was not in your life?"

"I've become the Second in Command alongside Jazz, both of us taking orders directly from Optimus Prime himself. I-I've been through a lot in this war… and…" Prowl's hand unconsciously grasped that of Sunstreaker, who was standing next to him. "I've found many friends, and the one my spark sings for, Father."

"Well, you can forget whoever it is, because your mother and I have found a good bondmate for you. A strong femme, who is also an expert in the ways of the higher-class bots. She's…"

"DAD! I don't WANT anyone else! This is a choice my spark made, Father. My spark wants no one else." Prowl then turned his head, and looked up into Sunstreaker's cerulean optics. "My spark chose Sunny."

"Hmm… I'll have to change plans, then. May I speak to this young mech for a little bit?" As Prowl's father spoke, he motioned towards Sunstreaker with one hand in a regal gesture.

"Yes. And Father, what is your name?"

"I am known as Lord Praxum. You, Prowl, are of royal descent, and I just want to make sure that this mech would make a good bondmate for you." Praxum walked with a regal grace towards the pair, and then stopped in front of Sunstreaker. "Young mech, what is your name?"

"I'm Sunstreaker."

"Who are your parents?"

"I'd rather not talk OR think about it. My adoptive parents and Optimus Prime and Elita-1."

"Hm. Past occupations?"

"Artist, performer, and gladiator."

"A gladiator? You don't have any scars that I can see."

"I prefer to remain flawless."

"I see. Moving on, when did you first meet my son?"

"When Prime requested for the other sparklings in Iacon Tower to come to the top level where he and Elita took care of my twin and myself. He was the one who helped me become less afraid of everything."

"I see. What have you done for my son since then?"

"I've done many things for him. When we were just sparklings, I killed someone just to protect Prowl. I didn't want to kill that mech, but he was trying to take Prowl away to some laboratory. I've also risked my own well-being countless times to protect him and the other Autobots, the most recent of which is when I nearly died from protecting him with my own body when we were falling out of the sky. I had used my suit to catch him, but then I was shot, and while I was falling, I wrapped the wings of my flight suit around him and brought my legs up so that he was unable to get hurt from the fall."

"Hm. Do you truly care deeply for my son?"

"Of course I do. Took us both a while to realize what these feelings really were, but when we found out, we became nigh on inseparable. We just got back from a trip into the forest to just have some time away from everyone watching us to see if we'd kiss, hold hands, etc."

"I see. Well, I think you'll do. By the way, what is that 'flight suit' you mentioned?"

"There are currently only two in existence in the universe. Mine, which is the original prototype, and the one I made for Prowl. He's still learning how to use it." Sunstreaker gave the SIC an affectionate one-armed hug, and Prowl looked up at him tenderly.

"Um, Sunny, don't you need to go meet the transfers from the African tribe?" Prowl's question caused Sunstreaker to widen his optics.

"That's right! Ok, talk to you later, but I gotta go! Don't want to break a warrior's promise, or we might lose the alliance we have with those humans!" Sunstreaker gave the Lord a two-fingered salute, quickly kissed Prowl, and then dashed into the Ark.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Three weeks later, Sunstreaker had finally gotten the assistant he needed.

"Hey, Sunshine, so you needed my help?" The short, teenaged human girl in a black jumpsuit stood in the middle of the lab that was temporarily assigned to Sunstreaker.

"Don't call me that, and yes. Do you think you could lend me a hand in making these?" Sunstreaker set the paper with the spear design in front of her, and the teen leaned down to look at it.

"Hm… let's see…" The human began to mumble complicated scientific words under her breath, most of which Sunstreaker knew, but most of the others didn't , including Perceptor and Wheeljack! "Yeah, I think this will work. You'll need a factory to make them, though."

"I know. Think you could help out? After all, you have a very high standing in governments worldwide!"

"Stop flattering me, or I'll call you Sunshine again." The teen looked up at him with a glare that could have melted metal on malice alone.

"All right, AirStrikeTF." Sunstreaker picked up his design. "So, think you could help out?"

"Definitely. Oh, and Sunstreaker?"

"Yeah?"

"You should go see Ratchet. You look a little shaky."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Sunstreaker sat on his berth in the quarters he shared with Sideswipe, Prowl by his side, as they went over specifics for the contract for the factory that they would need to produce the spears for the African tribe. Suddenly, Sunstreaker felt a steadily growing pain in his torso. He frowned, and tried to ignore it, but it kept growing, and started to feel like something was stinging. Then, he blacked out, and slumped to the side.

"Sunny!" Prowl caught the warrior before he could fall off the berth, and frantically commed the med bay. "Ratchet! Something's wrong with Sunny!"

* _I'm coming! Just stay calm!_ * When the medic arrived, Prowl was gently laying the unconscious mech on the berth.

"Prowl, what happened?!"

"I don't know! We were going over the contract for the factory we need, and he just passed out! I don't know what to do!" Prowl looked up at the CMO with a fearful expression in his optics. "Can you help him?"

"I'll see what I can do. Let's get him to med bay!" Ratchet gently hooked his arms under the yellow twin's shoulders and knees, and lifted the limp mech. Carrying Sunstreaker bridal-style, the CMO rushed him to med bay for an emergency diagnosis. Prowl followed close behind, and neither of them noticed the tall Praxian they passed in the corridor.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Sunstreaker was slowly coming to, and he tried to place where he was. He could hear voices near him, but he couldn't make out all of the words.

" _Sunstreaker… preg… only 1… 10 months… needs… of rest._ " Sunstreaker soon became fully aware, and he tried to sit up. Ratchet and Prowl noticed, and rushed to his side.

"Careful, Sunstreaker. Don't want any of you to get hurt." The warrior became confused at how the CMO had worded his sentence.

"What do you mean by 'any,' Ratch'? What happened?"

"Sunstreaker, I hope you don't pass out again by my telling you this, but you're pregnant." Sunstreaker froze. To the other two, he looked like Prowl did when he was about to crash. Speaking of Prowl…

 _CRASH!_

"Well… there goes Prowl." Ratchet shook his head, then started to snap his fingers in front of Sunstreaker's face. "Hey! Daffodil! You there?!"

"Don't call me that." The nickname snapped the warrior out of his shocked state, mainly because he hated being compared to flowers. "Only Prowl can call me by my nicknames without being yelled at."

"How sweet. Now, back to the point. You won't be allowed to fight Decepticons for the next 9.25 months, because you're pregnant. You'll need to talk to one of our human friends to get more info on the pregnancy and how you are going to give birth, but I think that I can take care of the medical side of it."

"I'm actually PREGNANT?!"

"Yes. Were you with anyone about three weeks ago?"

"Well… Prowl and I went to that meadow in the woods…" Ratchet held up a hand to stop him from talking.

"Say no more. At least we know who the father is now. What surprises me is that you didn't know for almost a month."

"I guess it just took a while, since I'm such a strong 'bot." Sunstreaker smirked at the CMO, but he was a bit more distracted than usual. _I'm actually PREGNANT! Huh. I guess I'm going to be a mother. Prowl's going to be a father. Sides, Blue, and Smokey are going to be uncles, and I guess that Praxum is going to be a grandfather._ The sound of fingers snapping brought him out of his musings.

"Earth to Sunshine! Come in Sunshine!" Ratchet was glaring at him.

"Don't. Call. Me. That."

"I was trying to get your attention. Now, I'm going to give you a datapad on sparkling care, and I'm going to wake up Prowl so that you can both go over it together." Ratchet handed Sunstreaker the datapad, and then went to wake up the SIC. Once the Praxian was back online, Ratchet explained everything to him quickly, and then went to his office, muttering something about 'lovestruck idiots' under his breath. Prowl turned to Sunstreaker, and they both had a dazed look.

"Should we tell anyone?" Sunstreaker's voice sounded shaky and uncertain, and he looked up at Prowl, clearly expecting guidance.

"I believe we should. Prime would need to know, and so would our relatives. And since word would get around fast anyway, we should just go down to the rec room and tell everyone who's there." Prowl held out a hand to help Sunstreaker off of the medical berth, and the warrior accepted it. Once they were both standing, Prowl put an arm around Sunstreaker's waist, while Sunstreaker practically leaned against him as they walked. Both of them were feeling a bit overwhelmed, but they both wanted to see what the others' faces would look like once they told them. Surprisingly, when they opened the med bay door, they saw Prowl's father standing there, appearing like he was just about to open the door himself.

"Prowl…" Praxum's face had a look of complete surprise on it when he saw the expressions on their faces. "Is there something you want to talk about? What happened back there?"

"Um… well… Sunstreaker fainted because he's pregnant. That's about as simple as I can get." Prowl's explanation caused his father's optics to widen in shock and surprise.

"And… let me guess, you're the father, my son?" Prowl nodded, and Praxum sighed. "I guess that it would have happened sooner or later, seeing how close you two had become."

"I'm glad you understand, Dad. I was thinking you were going to be angry at us, and…" Praxum held up a hand, silencing his son.

"I know that you were probably afraid to tell me, but to tell you the truth, I am glad that I am going to become a grandfather. When I was wandering through space, I kept wondering whether or not I would ever see my children have sparklings of their own, and now that you are going to be a father, Prowl, I am glad that I have that chance." Praxum turned to Sunstreaker then. "Because I see how much you care for my son, I am glad that you are going to be the bearer of his child. True love like that usually sparks the most solid of relationships, and that should not be wasted. You have strength, Sunstreaker, and I am honored to call you my son-in-law."

"Thanks. Now, I think we better be headed down to the rec room. We agreed that we were going to let everyone know, so that we don't have to deal with rumors going around. We also need to let Prime know, because I am not going to be allowed to fight Decepticons OR transform until the sparkling is born." Sunstreaker turned his head to face Prowl. "Shall we, then?"

"Of course, Sunny." Prowl smiled lovingly at his beloved, and together, the two walked down to the rec room, with Lord Praxum following behind them like a mother hen. He didn't want _anything_ to happen to his grandsparkling.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

When the trio entered the rec room, it appeared that half of the Autobots were currently in there, enjoying a nice refuel and some conversation. When the others started to notice the arrivals, the conversations died down, and every pair of optics turned to face them. Prowl and Sunstreaker were suddenly extremely nervous, and thinking that _maybe_ this wasn't such a good idea after all. However, Praxum nudged them from behind, encouraging them to tell everyone like they had originally intended to. It helped that Prime and Jazz were also in the room.

"Is there something you two would like to share with us, Prowl? Sunstreaker?" Prime's baritone voice was soft and encouraging, giving the parents-to-be courage to speak.

"Um… yes. You see… we were just at the med bay, and we found out that Sunny here is three weeks pregnant." Prowl nearly winced at how uncertain his own tone of voice sounded, but somehow managed to stay strong beside Sunstreaker. If the room had been quiet before, it was now dead silent. So quiet, you could have heard a small metal filament landing on the ground. Everyone's optics were wide with shock and surprise, and Prime looked like he was about to fall out of his chair. Jazz… they couldn't read his expression as clearly because of the visor in place of his optics, but he looked like Prowl did whenever he was about to crash. Then, someone spoke up.

"Who's the father?" Everyone turned to see if they could locate the speaker, and they saw Sideswipe standing up, staring hard at the three 'bots in the doorway.

"I am." Prowl sheepishly raised his left hand, and the focus was back on him.

"Why you…" Sideswipe suddenly lunged at the SIC, and everyone scrambled to try to stop him. "Let me go! That fragger impregnated my twin!" The red warrior fought against the many strong arms and hands keeping him from moving, while Prowl took the opportunity to hide behind his father and Sunstreaker.

"Sides! Bro, calm down!" Sunstreaker stepped forward, and placed one hand in the center of Sideswipe's chest. Still glaring, Sideswipe stopped struggling when his twin was near.

"Bro, why are you so CALM about this?!" Sideswipe was spitting with rage, and Sunstreaker could understand why.

"Because I see it as a way to do more in life than just fight, Sides! I see it as a second chance, a chance to start over again!" Sunstreaker placed a hand on the top of his brother's head, and Sideswipe looked up at him with a confused expression. "Sides, you must understand, I love Prowl. You know that, remember? I am happy that we're able to start a family. Besides, since I'm your brother, you'll be the sparkling's uncle!"

"Uncle?" Sideswipe's anger visibly drained away, and the other Autobots cautiously let go of him. The red warrior stood to his full height, and looked quite surprised. "I'm going to be an uncle?"

"Yes, Sides. You'll be an uncle." Sunstreaker smirked at his twin. "Now, promise not to kill Prowl?"

"All right, I promise." The red twin was now completely happy, and even sent a friendly smile Prowl's way. The SIC cautiously came out from behind his father, who was laughing at his son's behavior.

"Dad, it's not funny!"

"But it is! He's a lower rank than you, yet you hide from him!"

"That's because he's SIDESWIPE! Seriously, have you SEEN his record?!" Prowl threw his hands up into the air. "He's even known as the King of Pranks! He's the Red Hellion! Do you want to know why he and his twin are still alive?"

"Why?"

"BECAUSE THEY ARE PRIME'S BEST FRONTLINE WARRIORS! Seriously, they can take a LOT of damage, and still fight! They are strong, ruthless, sly, sometimes even crafty! Sideswipe especially! Not to mention that Sideswipe is the one with the rocket pack!" Prowl pointed at the device on the red twin's back, and Praxum laughed.

"Apparently those two both like to fly, eh?"

"You don't know the half of it." Prowl then smiled at Sunstreaker, as the yellow twin walked over to him.

"Hey, Copper, want to get some energon while we're here, or do you want to have some more of my cooking?" Sunstreaker grinned, and both Praxians answered at the same time.

"Copper?"

"Cooking." Prowl took hold of Sunstreaker's hand, and the two walked away, followed by a very confused Lord Praxum.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

When they arrived at the one room that Praxum had not been able to enter yet, the Lord was very surprised.

"Isn't this room off-limits?" The two other mechs looked at him, and smiled.

"Not for us! Basically, the rules for this room are that Sunstreaker makes the rules, and you are only allowed in when Sunstreaker says you can." Sunstreaker grinned at the Praxian, and keyed in the code for the room. It the door opened, and the two parents-to-be went in first, Prowl turning on the lights. Sunstreaker turned back, and had an impatient look on his face. "Well, you coming in or not?"

"I'm coming." Praxum entered the room, and looked around in awe. To him, it was as if he had stepped out of the present and back into the Golden Ages. Cooking equipment that he had not seen since the war started was set up in the room, along with pots and pans, many kitchen utensils, and even an energon-storage fridge. While the Praxian Lord was looking around, Sunstreaker was busily gathering what he needed to prepare a meal for three. Prowl simply went to get out the dishes for the meal, and set their places at the table.

"Copper, think you could set up four extra places as well? I've just sent Prime, Smokey, Blue, and Sides and invite to the meal over the comm."

"Sure, Sunshine." Prowl got the extra dishes out, and Praxum found himself confused again.

"Copper?" The other two turned to face the Praxian. "Why does he call you that, son?"

"It's his nickname for me. You see, my alt mode is a law enforcement vehicle on this planet, and since I help out the Police Force in the nearby city of Portland, I was given the nickname 'Copper' because of my alt mode, and what I do to help the humans. Another reason why is because I was an Enforcer in Iacon back on Cybertron during the later years of the Golden Ages." Prowl finished setting the table, and turned to give his father his full attention. "I don't mind it when Sunny or Sideswipe call me that, but I can't really stand it when anyone else calls me Copper for some reason."

"Perhaps it is because, since the twins are split-sparks, they are practically the same person, but two different people." Praxum sat down at the table, and waited patiently for Sunstreaker to finish cooking.

"Perhaps." Prowl sat down next to his father, and while they were waiting, they heard a knock on the door.

"Copper, could you see who that is? I don't want to burn the energon." Sunstreaker was busy cooking with 4 different pans at the same time, so Prowl stood up.

"Of course, Sunny." Prowl went over to the door, and when he opened it, the four guests that Sunstreaker had invited were standing there. "Hello. Please, come in." Prowl moved back to sit beside his father again, and kept the seat on his other side free for Sunstreaker to sit down in once he was done cooking.

"Hey, bro, you're really going to be a father?" Smokescreen sat down across from Prowl, while Optimus took the seat across from Praxum. Sideswipe sat next to Smokescreen on his other side, while Bluestreak sat at the head of the table between his father and Prime.

"Yes. Ratchet said that Sunstreaker is 3 weeks pregnant, so the sparkling will arrive about 9.25 months from now." Prowl still felt a little uncomfortable speaking about Sunstreaker's pregnancy around Sideswipe, but the red twin seemed to have gotten over it, and was now excited at the prospect of being an uncle.

"Okay, guys! Energon's ready!" Sunstreaker came over to the table, balancing 4 large platters of cooked energon foods on his hands and arms, and one on the top of his head. Praxum alone stared in awe at the show of skill and balance, as the warrior deftly placed all 5 platters onto the table without spilling anything. "Let me sit down, and then we'll dig in!" Sunstreaker quickly took his spot, and they commenced with passing the platters of energon food around the table so that everyone would get a share.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Everyone had finished eating, and Sunstreaker was busying himself with cleaning the dishes. Praxum was still sitting at the table, in an almost dreamlike state from having such a good-tasting meal after having military rations for so long, and Prowl was helping Sunstreaker. Occasionally, the two parents-to-be would share a kiss, reminding each other that they would be there for the other. When everything was cleaned, dried, and put away, the parents-to-be walked over to Praxum.

"Hey, it's time to leave the room now." Sunstreaker prodded the Praxian on the shoulder, and Prowl's father jumped slightly out of surprise.

"Oh, you two are done cleaning already?"

"Yes. Come on, let's go." Just as the trio had left and Sunstreaker had locked the door, they heard someone sounding the alert over the PA system.

* _Guys, we got Decepticons incoming! ETA is 10 minutes from now! All battle-fit Autobots need to report for battle duty!_ * It was Bumblebee. Out of habit, Sunstreaker started to head for the Ark entrance, until Prowl grabbed his arm.

"Sunny, remember? Ratchet said no joining battles until the little one is born."

"Oh, right." Sunstreaker turned back to face Prowl. "So, what do I do?"

"Dad and I will take you to your quarters, and we'll protect you. I've already gained permission from Prime." Prowl led Sunstreaker to the quarters the warrior shared with his twin brother, and Sunstreaker keyed in the code to open the door. Once they were inside, Sunstreaker closed and locked the door, just in case the Decepticons somehow got into the Ark and tried to find them.

"I think the 'Cons somehow found out about our sparkling, Copper. You know how ol' Megs hates to be outnumbered."

"Yes. But don't worry, we'll protect you, Sunny. You should get some rest." Prowl sat down next to Sunstreaker's berth, and the yellow warrior lay down to get some sleep. Praxum positioned himself beside the door, just in case someone broke it down to try to attack the parents-to-be. He would _not_ allow the Decepticons to kill his grandsparkling without one pit of a fight!

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Megatron, give it up already!" Optimus was grappling with the gun-former in the center of the battle, while the others were locked in combat with the other Decepticons.

"Prime, do you REALLY think I wouldn't find out about the little life your officer is trying to see into the world?" Megatron's words made Optimus freeze. He couldn't have found out about the sparkling already! They had only just found out about it that day!"

"How did you find out, Megatron?!"

"Come, come, Prime, you don't give my intelligence agents enough credit!" Megatron landed a punch to Prime's face, knocking him down. "Now, I can see ONE of your pit-spawn twins attacking my Seekers, but the loud golden one isn't here. Now, _where_ can that hellion be?" The gun-former smirked at the horrified expression on Optimus' face, as the Autobot leader quickly commed the two mechs defending the warrior.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

* _Prowl, Praxum, the attack is a distraction! They're here to kill the sparkling!_ * Prowl gasped in horror. Praxum, still standing by the door, tensed in shock and anger. How _dare_ the Decepticons threaten to kill his grandsparkling! It hasn't even seen the light of day yet! Just as the two were recovering from their shock, they heard loud, heavy footsteps coming down the corridor, and the crashing noise of doors being kicked open.

"Menasor is coming! What do we do?!" Prowl was panicking. At that moment, Sunstreaker woke up.

"Menasor?! Guys, I have an idea of what we can do." Both Praxians focused their attention on the warrior. "I have a secret tunnel. It begins in this very room. We can hide in it until the 'Cons leave!"

"Sunny, that's BRILLIANT!" Prowl helped the warrior get off of his berth, and the two Praxians watched as Sunstreaker moved a large art-supplies crate away from a spot on the wall. He bent down, and lifted a panel in the floor.

"In here! QUICK!" Sunstreaker shoved the panel to the side, and dropped into the tunnel. He was followed by Prowl, and then by Praxum, who pulled the panel back over the hole. When the two Praxians looked around, they couldn't see Sunstreaker, and the tunnel was pitch-black.

"Sunny?!"

"Shh! This way!" Prowl felt a hand touch his, and gently pull him forwards a bit. The SIC reached back, and tugged on his father for him to follow. As the trio crawled through the tunnel, the two Praxians noticed how the texture of the tunnel changed from smooth metal to the rough-hewn texture of chiseled stone.

"How far does this tunnel go?" Prowl's voice was a barely-heard whisper, and he could see Sunstreaker's cerulean optics as the warrior turned his head to look at him.

"Not much farther. In the chamber at the end, I have electrified lighting. We'll be safe there." Sunstreaker faced forwards again, and Prowl could hear the shuffling sound of him continuing on his way. The father and son followed the warrior, and soon, they heard the sounds of Sunstreaker using the sides of the tunnel to stand up. They heard him climbing, and soon, with a soft _click_ , they saw light coming from a point above the end of the tunnel they could now see. Prowl climbed out first, and then Praxum, and they both stared in awe at the chamber that had obviously taken a long while to dig out.

"How long did you spend making this? HOW did you make this without any of us knowing?!" Prowl spun to face Sunstreaker, disbelief in his optics.

"I finished digging it out last year, near Christmas. I was working on it since we first arrived here. You know, there are some secrets in this base that not even most of the Officers know about, Copper. Besides, would the 'Cons have ever thought to look for a secret tunnel in a normal warrior's quarters? Didn't think so. I thought that I might as well have a safe place to hide sensitive equipment and information that we wanted to keep from the 'Cons. Prime would give me something to hide, and I'd hide it. No questions asked, no explanations demanded. I would simply take the stuff here, and hide it." Sunstreaker motioned towards one side of the chamber, and when Prowl looked over there, he saw experimental prototypes, and giant filing cabinets lined up against the wall.

"That's all of the stuff that Prime wanted vanished over the years?!"

"Yup. I once had to hide his mug here, actually, because he was so afraid Megatron would take it." When Sunstreaker said that, the other two broke down in laughter.

"Really?! His MUG?!"

"Yep! It was actually hilarious how he begged me to hide it for him. I kept it in my subspace for a few days, and when I was sure that nobody was following me to try to take the mug, I slipped down here and hid it. I think he actually never asked for it back. Let me see…" Sunstreaker started to look through the boxes that were near the wall, and then held up an item in triumph. "Found it! It's Prime's mug!"

"Can I see it?" Prowl took the mug from the warrior, and read what it said on the side. "World's Best Prime?!"

"I know, right?" Sunstreaker took the mug back, and put it back into the box it came from. "I got loads of stuff in here that others wanted hidden. For example, I have Jazz's collection of electrum-plated instruments… Grapple's architectural models… even your collection of top-secret datapads!"

"You actually still have those?!" Prowl was stunned. "Where are they?"

"Filing cabinet B, drawer 20, section 10."

"You actually keep track of all that?!"

"What? Just because I'm a warrior and not an officer, that doesn't mean that I can't organize stuff." Sunstreaker then started to feel tired. "I need to sit down. Good thing I have a section of this chamber set aside for emergencies like an overnight stay in here." Sunstreaker tiredly made his way over to a corner of the chamber opposite the massive piles of sensitive equipment and information, and sat down on a berth that was modeled after a human bed.

"Did you get that custom-made?"

"Yup. Sides paid the humans to make it for me. Sometimes I just need to relax on something OTHER than a cold metal slab, ya know?" Sunstreaker lay down on the massive bed, letting out a sigh of contentment and relief in response to how relaxing the soft cushions were. He seemed to sink slightly into the massive mattress, and he was asleep within moments. Prowl smiled, and saw that the warrior hadn't even bothered to pull the blankets onto himself, so the SIC did it for him. After making sure that the mother-to-be was tucked in all nice and cozy, he sat down in a soft-looking chair next to the berth. It was soft all right. The SIC hadn't even realized that he was tired, so the moment he was sitting in the chair, he himself fell asleep, leaving Praxum as the only one awake.

"Heh. Young ones don't even know when they are supposed to sleep, they worry so much."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

When the Autobots finally got the Decepticons to retreat, they frantically searched the Ark to see if Sunstreaker was still there and still healthy. They were also worried about the sparkling he was pregnant with. If the Decepticons had managed to kill them… The Autobots would rather not think about it. When they couldn't find any trace of the pregnant warrior OR his protectors, Prime frantically got onto the comm. to try to contact them.

"Optimus Prime to Prowl, Sunstreaker, or Praxum, please come in!" He waited for a few moments, hoping that they would hear him. Then, Praxum's face appeared on the comm. screen.

* _I'm here, sir. The other two are sleeping. Are the Decepticons gone?_ *

"Yes. We drove them away. Are Sunstreaker and the unborn sparkling safe?"

* _They are, sir, all thanks to the place where Sunstreaker has been hiding all of the stuff you wanted vanished. Did you know he still has your mug in here?_ *

"My mug is still there?! Ugh. Moving on, WHERE are you three?!"

* _We'll be heading back to the Ark once I get these two woken up. Have Ratchet ready in the med bay to give Sunstreaker a check-up just in case there's something wrong that I don't know about, all right?_ *

"All right, come back safe." The comm. screen turned off, and Prime sighed in relief. They were safe, Sunstreaker was safe, the sparkling was safe, everything was just fine. Except for the fact that his mug was still Primus-knows-where.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Son, wake up. NOW." At the firm tone of voice, Prowl groggily woke up, and looked up at his father.

"Is the attack over?"

"Yes. Help me wake up Sunstreaker, would you?"

"All right." Prowl leaned down so that his mouth was just a few inches away from the warrior's heafin. "Sunny… Sideswipe is running off with your paint again."

"SIDESWIPE GET BACK HERE- oh." Sunstreaker woke up flailing, then wanted to facepalm himself for actually believing that when his own twin didn't even know where he had hidden his paint. "Why did you wake me up? Is it time to head back into the Ark?"

"Yes. Come on now, let's go." Prowl helped Sunstreaker get off of the human-style berth, and the three went over to the tunnel. Sunstreaker turned off the lighting to the chamber, and led the way into the tunnel. Prowl followed, and Praxum was last.

"Well, I guess I might have to tell Ratchet where this is, just so he can follow us next time we need to hide down here." Sunstreaker sounded a bit peeved that he was going to have to reveal his secret place to more of the Autobots.

"It's all right, Sunny. Come, let us get to the end of the tunnel, and we'll go to Ratchet to make sure that everything's all right, ok?"

"Ok." When they had reached the end of the tunnel, Sunstreaker stood up, and pushed the panel out of the way. He climbed up, and came face-to-face with the CMO. "Uh… hi Ratchet."

"Sunny? What's the holdup up there?" Prowl's worried voice came from the tunnel, and Ratchet barely glanced at it before returning his gaze to the mother-to-be.

"You have a LOT of explaining to do, mister." The CMO had to restrain himself from whacking the pregnant bot with a wrench, and instead moved so that the warrior could get out of the way of the other two mechs.

"Sunny, what's wrong- oh. Hi Ratchet." Prowl's face fell when he saw the CMO standing in the middle of the twins' quarters, a stern expression on his face, a pair of wrenches in his hands, and a glare that could have melted metal on credit alone. Once Praxum was out of the tunnel, the SIC moved the panel back into place, and the two Praxians shoved the crate back on top of it.

"Tell me, how long has that tunnel been there?!" Ratchet's voice was an angry whisper, as he didn't want any possible Decepticon spies to find out about what might be the Ark's biggest secret.

"Only about 1 year in completion, Ratchet." Sunstreaker rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Oh. So it hasn't been there that long. Nevermind that, let's get you to med bay so I can make sure there aren't any complications with the sparkling." Ratchet guided the mother-to-be out of the room, followed by the two Praxians that had been standing guard over the warrior.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **9 Weeks Later**

Sunstreaker and Prowl were walking to the med bay, the former being gently guided by the latter. By this time, Sunstreaker's tummy was starting to bulge a bit, forming a slight bump where the sparkling was growing. The warrior had started having mood swings, so for Prowl, every day was like walking the tightrope, with a thread as a rope.

"Are we almost there?"

"Yes, Sunny. Remember, today we're going to get a scan to see just how many sparklings you're having." Prowl smiled, feeling like he was the luckiest mech in the universe to have Sunstreaker as a bondmate, as well as having a sparkling. Soon, they arrived at the med bay, and they were surprised to see Lord Praxum waiting outside. "Dad? What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to be with my son and son-in-law for when they find out how many sparklings they're having." Praxum opened the med bay door, and gestured for them to enter first. "After you."

"Thanks." Sunstreaker walked into the med bay, where Ratchet was waiting with the ultrasound equipment.

"How are you feeling today, Sunstreaker?" Ratchet was now abstaining from calling the warrior by any of his nicknames, because that was one thing that would set off his violent mood swings.

"A little tired, but otherwise just fine." Sunstreaker was walking with one hand on his sparkling bump, and the other holding Prowl's hand.

"Well, lie down here, and we'll take a look to see how many little ones you are going to have." Ratchet patted the berth beside the monitor he had set up, and the warrior complied without complaint.

"So, how does this work?" Sunstreaker looked at Ratchet uncertainly, not sure of what to expect.

"I'll explain it as I do it, all right?" Upon receiving the nod from the mother-to-be, Ratchet got out a jar of the special gel needed for the procedure. "I'm going to put this on your sparkling bump, so that the ultrasound waves can be properly transmitted and received by the transducer." Ratchet carefully spread the gel on the warrior's tummy, right on the sparkling bump. After setting the jar aside, he picked up the transducer, which was hooked to the Ultrasound imaging screen by a cord. "I'm going to place this on your sparkling bump. It's the transducer, and it will transmit the feedback from the ultrasound waves to the screen." The medic placed the transducer on the sparkling bump, and turned on the screen. "This is a 4-D ultrasound, so we'll actually be able to see the little one or little ones move."

"When is the image going to clear up?" Sunstreaker was watching the screen anxiously, wanting to be able to see how many sparklings there were.

"It should clear up in a few… ah! Here we go." Ratchet pointed to the blurry outline of inside Sunstreaker. "Here's the sparkling area… Oh. See these two shadowy shapes?" He turned his head to face the warrior, who nodded, not taking his optics off of the screen. "Those are the sparklings. They are twins. Do you want to know their genders?"

"No. Let's keep it a surprise." Sunstreaker then looked more closely at the image. "It looks like one of them is waving to us." The other three leaned in closer, and saw that one of them was indeed moving its arm.

"Huh. It DOES look like it's waving." Ratchet then took the transducer off of Sunstreaker's sparkling bump. "Let's get you cleaned off, and then you need to get yourself some energon.

"Yes, Ratchet." The warrior waited patiently while Ratchet cleaned the gel off of him, and then Prowl and Praxum helped him off of the berth. "Twins… we're having _twins_ …

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **TO BE CONTINUED…**


	4. Kidnapped!

"PROWL! I NEED ENERGON! _NOW!_ " There was a crash as something was thrown at a wall, and the SIC came running out of his newly expanded quarters.

"I'll get it, Sunny! Just PLEASE don't break anything!" Prowl ran down the corridor, and soon arrived at the rec room, panting heavily as he tried to cycle air through his overheated systems.

"Mood swings?" Lord Praxum, Prowl's father, came walking up to his son, and handed him an energon cube.

"You have no idea." Prowl finally managed to stop panting, and took the cube. "It doesn't help matters that Sunny was _already_ the most temperamental mech here."

"Speaking of which, don't you need to give him his energon?" When Praxum said this, Prowl's optics widened, and he dashed out of the rec room.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Prowl?"

"Yes, Sunny?"

"Do you think that I'll be a good mother for the twins?"

"I do, Sunny. You were protective even before becoming pregnant, and I know that you only want the best for them."

"Thanks, Copper, I needed to hear that."

"You're welcome, Sunshine. Now get some rest." Prowl went back into recharge, and Sunstreaker soon followed. When the sun arose the next morning, the Autobots were woken up by Teletraan 1 sounding an alert.

' _ALERT! ALERT! DECEPTICONS APPROACHING BASE!_ ' All of the Autobots on the Ark snapped awake, and Sunstreaker started to worry and fear for his unborn sparklings. Then, Ratchet ran in, and saw the warrior clinging to Prowl's arm out of that fear.

"Sunstreaker, calm down! If you worry and fear too much, it will cause you to give birth way too early!" The CMO went over to the parents-to-be, and sat down with them. "Praxum and Smokescreen are coming to be extra protection, just in case. So are the Dinobots. You know how much those dolts like you, right Sunstreaker?"

"Y-yeah… I'm an honorary Dinobot, remember?"

"That's right. They see you as a brother, and will defend you as family. You'll be safe, don't worry." Ratchet put a hand on the warrior's shoulder, and smiled reassuringly.

"Ratchet, what if the Decepticons somehow get in here?"

"Then we'll need a way to hide, Prowl."

"I think I know where. I have a secret storage compartment under my berth. It's large, and deep. Big enough to hold five of us in it."

"Is it empty?"

"There are only a few of my datapads in there. Otherwise, it's empty."

"Good thinking, Prowl. How do you get down there?" Ratchet stood up, helping Sunstreaker to stand as well.

"Let's see… the activation button should be… right around… here!" Prowl pressed a hidden button on the side of his berth, and it split in half, each half rising upwards like a double-trapdoor set. When it was finished, Ratchet looked in, and saw three datapads stacked in one corner of the storage space.

"That's perfect!" The CMO climbed in, and waited for Sunstreaker to start going in. Suddenly, the door opened, and Praxum and Smokescreen stood in the doorway.

"Another hiding place that just about nobody knows about? I'm inpressed." Praxum walked over to the storage space, and looked in. "However, not as impressive as the first one."

"I know. I don't have as much time on my hands as Sunstreaker did." Prowl helped his bondmate climb into the storage space, and then followed the mother-to-be inside. Once all five mechs were in the storage space, Prowl hit an emergency closing button on the inside, and the berth went back together over the hole, once more hiding it from view.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Megatron, give up already! You'll never get to Sunstreaker, or the unborn twins!" Optimus Prime fired his gun at the Decepticon leader, scoring a hit on the left shoulder.

"That's what YOU think, Prime!" Megatron fired his fusion cannon, and the Prime just barely avoided the blast.

"Megatron, NONE of us will allow you to harm the sparklings OR their mother! You failed when you sent Menasor, and you'll fail today as well!"

"Not when I have both Menasor AND Devastator searching your base for that yellow pit-spawn of yours!" Megatron was about to say more, but the Prime tackled him, and the two started to wrestle for the upper hand in the battle.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

When the battle was over, Megatron ended up retreating like he always did, and the Autobots once more frantically searched the Ark for any sign of the mother-to-be.

* _Optimus Prime to Sunstreaker, are you there?_ *

* _I'm here, Prime. Can we come out now?_ *

* _Yes. Is Ratchet with you?_ *

* _Yeah. You need him?_ *

* _We've got wounded that need repairing. Are you and the sparklings all right?_ *

* _We're just fine, Prime._ *

* _Thank Primus._ * Prime turned off his comm. unit, and walked to the rec room to get some energon. When he got there, he saw that the four Autobots that had been guarding Sunstreaker were _still_ guarding the pregnant 'bot, and Sunstreaker was sitting at one of the tables in the back.

"I know I already asked you this, but are you feeling all right?" Optimus sat down next to the mother-to-be, and Sunstreaker flashed him a grin.

"I'm feeling just fine, Prime. And you know what? I keep getting a tickling sensation from my belly."

"Tickling?"

"Like something is fluttering in there, barely touching the inside of me."

"That's… actually pretty funny!" Prime broke down in laughter, and the others chuckled along with him. Sunstreaker placed a hand over his sparkling bump, once more feeling that faint tickling sensation.

"I wonder why it feels like this… maybe one of them has doorwings!" Sunstreaker started to trace invisible circles on his abdomen, trying to calm the sparklings down. The other Autobots were still laughing from when Sunstreaker told them about the inner tickles, and the mother-to-be smiled at them.

"Hey, Sunny?"

"Yeah, Copper?"

"I love you."

"Love you too." The two parents-to-be hugged, and Prowl felt like he had never been so happy in his entire life than he was right then.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Two Months Later…**

"PROWL! WHERE'S MY ENERGON?!" Sunstreaker was lying on the berth he and Prowl shared, and he was obviously experiencing another violent mood swing.

"I've got it, my ray of Sunshine." Prowl came into their shared quarters, holding an energon cube in his left hand. Sunstreaker snatched the cube, and downed it hungrily.

"Thanks, Copper."

"Hungry much?"

"It's not me, it's the sparklings." Sunstreaker patted his sparkling bump, smiling when he felt a little kick from the inside. "And now they're kicking me. Great."

"Is that _sarcasm_ I detect in your voice?" Prowl feigned horror, and Sunstreaker laughed. The mother-to-be took hold of his bondmate's hand, and gently placed it over the sparkling bump. Prowl's optics widened when he felt a slight jab against his hand, then smiled. "They seem to be getting stronger, aren't they?"

"Yeah. But they're really starting to take away my energy. Well, five more months, and we'll get to hold them in our arms."

"Yeah. Five more months until no more mood swings too." The pair laughed, and hugged each other affectionately. Together, they walked to the med bay for Sunstreaker's next ultrasound.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"All right, remember what I did last time?"

"Yeah. Is it going to be a 4-D ultrasound again?"

"Yes. I want to see what reactions they have to your voices. I remember you telling me that they seem more active whenever either of you talk, right?"

"That's right. And they've been getting stronger when they kick, too." Sunstreaker went to lie down on the medical berth next to the ultrasound screen, and Prowl followed to sit beside him. Ratchet got out the special gel, and spread it over Sunstreaker's sparkling bump.

"I had to use more this time, since your bump is bigger than last time. Doesn't help that you've got two sparklings in there, either." Ratchet placed the transducer on the sparkling bump, and activated the ultrasound monitor screen. Instantly, a blurry 3-D image appeared on the screen, and they could see the sparklings moving around a bit. "All right, how about you two just talk to each other now?"

"All right. Prowl, did you remember to send that order for sparkling supplies to Cybertron?"

"Oops. I completely forgot!"

"You can do it when we're done here." While the two were talking, Ratchet observed the movements of the little sparklings that were seen on the screen. When Sunstreaker suddenly paused, it was because of two small, vaguely rectangular shapes attached to one of the sparklings that moved around in little flutters. Intrigued, Ratchet looked closer. The two parents-to-be were watching the screens, but still talking to each other about random, sparkling-related topics. Ratchet activated the special holographic feature on the ultrasound machine, and a 3-D hologram of the sparklings appeared. It was a vague shape, but the CMO was able to turn it so that he could get a better look at the shapes of the two sparklings.

"Hmm… looks like one of them is smaller than the other, but that's nothing to worry about. After all, both of you two are different sizes." Ratchet turned off the hologram after recording a short hologram video of the sparklings. "You can keep this as a little keepsake for those small hologram projectors you two like to collect so much."

"Thanks, Ratchet. Do the two of them seem healthy?" Sunstreaker's voice had a hint of worry in it. The tone of a concerned mother.

"Yes, they are both growing at a healthy rate. Five more months, hopefully with no complications or Decepticon tampering, and you'll have two healthy sparklings to call your own." Ratchet turned off the ultrasound machine, and removed the transducer from Sunstreaker's sparkling bump. After cleaning the gel off of the mother-to-be, the CMO allowed the couple to leave, after giving them the recordings from the ultrasound.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Sunny! How did your ultrasound appointment go?" Sideswipe came running up to his pregnant brother, a happy and excited look on his face.

"Very well! Both sparklings are happy, healthy, and I'm just fine too!" Sunstreaker gave his twin a hug, and then released him to put a hand on his sparkling bump. "I need to go get some energon so that the little ones can keep growing." The mother-to-be went on his way, and Prowl followed close behind him in case he needed assistance. Sideswipe tagged along, wanting to learn more about the sparklings, when the trio were halted by a small group of arguing humans in the middle of the corridor.

"Hey, you guys DON'T want to mess with me! I can live here if I want!"

"But you're human! WHY do you want to stay here 24/7?!"

"Yeah, why? I don't think the Autobots would like it if you started to remodel parts of the base to fit your needs!"

"Hey, back off, girlfriend. Who's the Spec Ops-trained, electric whip-wielding teenager here? ME, that's who!"

"Maybe you should ALL calm down."

"Don't tell me what to do, old man!"

"WHAT did you call my dad?!"

"Hey! That's MY grandpa, shorty!"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" The teen in the black jumpsuit looked about ready to pounce on the other 4 humans who were arguing with her, and somehow, Sunstreaker's protective motherly instincts kicked in.

"Hey! You five need to calm down! Now tell me, what is the argument about?" Sunstreaker crouched down with some difficulty, due to his sparkling bump, and picked up the five humans, making sure to keep AirStrikeTF separate from the others.

"I've decided that, while in this universe, I'm going to live here in the Ark, but THESE clowns said that I couldn't! NOBODY tells ME what to do!" The black-clad teen crossed her arms, her multicolored hair starting to come out of the loose braid it was in.

"All right, what's your side of the story, Spike?" Sunstreaker turned his head to face the middle-aged man, who also had his arms crossed.

"I was saying that she should try to find a human family to live with while in this universe, because she's not even an adult yet! She needs someone to take care of her, and…"

"HEY! I am NOT a little kid anymore!"

"You can't be older than 11 years old!"

"I'M ALMOST 16 YA DUM-DUM!"

"Now see here young lady!"

"QUIET!" The five humans fell silent at the shout from the warrior, and looked at him nervously, except for AirStrikeTF, who glared at him menacingly. "I am SO not in the mood for your SQUABBLING right now! Right now I am 5 months pregnant, and I don't know WHAT THE SLAG I'M SUPPOSED TO DO TO TAKE CARE OF MY SPARKLINGS!"

"WHA-HAH?!" The Witwickys were all stunned, but the black-clad Spec Ops teenager didn't look all that surprised at all.

"Yeah, figured as much, Sunstreaker. After all, I've been here more recently than these four jokers have. It's surprising they stayed away so long." The teen looked accusingly at the Witwickys, and the four humans rubbed the backs of their heads sheepishly.

"Sorry, we were on a family trip to Hawaii. So… you're really pregnant, Sunstreaker?!" Spike stared up at the warrior in awe, as the mother-to-be sighed out of aggravation.

"YES I'm pregnant! You think that I was kidding when I have a sparkling bump on my belly?" Sunstreaker used his head to motion towards his swollen tummy, and the four Witwickys gasped in shock.

"How far along are you, Sunstreaker?" AirStrikeTF looked up at the warrior with a piercing gaze.

"Five months. Only five more, and I'll give birth to twins." Sunstreaker was smiling fondly now, and Carly looked up at him.

"Um… are you aware what 'giving birth' entails, Sunstreaker?"

"No. I was hoping that someone would explain it to me. How do the sparklings come out of the mother, anyway? Do you cut them out?" Sunstreaker set the humans on his shoulders, and noticed that Spike, Carly, and Sparkplug were getting a little nervous.

"Only if it's necessary. Usually, if there are complications during the birth, that would call for what is called a C-section, where you perform surgery to get the baby out of the mother. Otherwise, you would go through what is called 'labor.' It's kinda strange to try to explain."

"What happens during labor?" Sunstreaker was walking down to the rec room, with Prowl and Sideswipe following close behind.

"Well, it's messy and painful, but you push the baby out of you." Carly winced when she saw the shocked and horrified look on Sunstreaker's face, and her eyes widened in surprise when he suddenly stiffened, and his optics went offline. "Uh-oh."

"Sunny!" Prowl rushed to catch the pregnant mech as he was falling, and Sideswipe ran to catch the humans. The Witwickys screamed, but AirStrikeTF simply magnetized her boots so that she would remain standing on the warrior's shoulder. She smirked at the hyperventilating humans in Sideswipe's hands.

"Like I told you, Spec Ops rules. You get all sorts of cool toys that can save you in a pinch. For example, my magnetizing boots." The teen motioned towards her feet, and the other humans made faces at her.

"Just because you're Special Ops, that doesn't mean that you're better than us, you know!"

"I know, but it still has awesomeness to go with it. I get all the experimental toys that the government can dish out, and I can get anywhere I want to. Oh, and did I mention that I am also hyper-flexible in the hips? Watch." After slipping her right foot out of her boot, she took hold of her foot, and turned her knee outwards, kept her back straight, and brought her foot up to touch her toes to her nose. After putting her foot back into her boot, she smirked at the shocked looks on the faces of human and Autobot alike. "What?"

"That shouldn't even be physically POSSIBLE!" Spike nearly fainted, and Carly actually DID faint. Daniel stared at the teen dumbfounded, and Sparkplug simply stared. At that time, Sunstreaker came to in Prowl's arms.

"Ugh… oh, hi Copper. Not a bad way to wake up." Sunstreaker smirked at his bondmate, who rolled his optics and sighed, helping the pregnant bot to his feet. AirStrikeTF stayed in the same position on the mother-to-be's shoulder, standing with confidence.

"So, you over your shock and horror, Sunstreaker?" The teen on the golden shoulder tapped the side of the mech's face, and Sunstreaker looked at her with a flat gaze.

"I just woke up from fainting. I don't think that I'd be over it otherwise, TF." Sunstreaker lifted a hand, and gently rubbed the top of the teen's head with one golden yellow finger, which was slapped away by a temperamental teenaged girl.

"Don't do that. You KNOW how sensitive my head is, Sunstreaker." AirStrikeTF leveled a glare full of daggers at the pregnant mech, which earned her a laugh from the mom-to-be.

"Sorry, I forgot. Come on, we need to get to the rec room, so that I can feed both myself AND my unborn little ones." Sunstreaker continued to the rec room, with the human on his shoulder, Prowl and Sideswipe following close behind, and the Witwickys sitting on the red twin's shoulders.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

When they got to the rec room, Sunstreaker was feeling very tired, so he immediately sat down at the nearest empty table. Prowl went to get a few cubes for him, and Sideswipe sat down next to his twin, setting the four humans on the table.

"So, Sunny, have you and Prowl thought of possible names yet?" AirStrikeTF slid down the warrior's arm to the table, jumping off when she got to the golden hand at the end.

"Not really. We've agreed that we're going to decide on names when the little ones are born, and not before." Sunstreaker placed a hand on his sparkling bump, and smiled softly when he felt those little tickling sensations inside of him. "Heh. One of my little ones is tickling me again."

"Tickling? Don't babies usually kick when they're not born yet?" Carly was confused, but AirStrikeTF understood.

"I think that what he means is that one of them must have doorwings, and when the sparkling moves them, it brushes against the inside of him, and it tickles. I'm sure that they kick too, right Sunstreaker?"

"That's right." The mother-to-be gave his sparkling bump a gentle pat, and then Prowl came to the table with five energon cubes.

"All right, I have one for me, one for Sideswipe, and three for Sunny." Setting the cubes on the table, Prowl sat down next to his bondmate, and the two shared a quick kiss, effectively stunning the Witwickys once more.

"Wait, is Prowl the father of the sparklings?" Daniel looked from the SIC to Sunstreaker, and back again, over and over.

"Yeah. We're also bonded now. Being bonded is essentially like being married in your culture, but for us it's completely permanent. We literally joined our sparks, so we have an unbreakable bond between us that only death can end." Sunstreaker hugged Prowl, then picked up one of the energon cubes. "Well, gotta refuel so that the little ones can grow more." Within the span of a few minutes, Sunstreaker finished all three of his cubes, and was gently tracing invisible circles on his sparkling bump.

"Sunny, do you want to go back to our quarters to take a nap?" Prowl gently put a hand on his bonded's shoulder, and looked at him affectionately.

"Yes, I think I should. I need my rest. See you guys later, all right?" Sunstreaker waved to the humans, but was surprised when AirStrikeTF leaped up and landed on his shoulder. "What is it, TF?"

"I'm coming with. Who knows where Laserbeak may be. I'm not taking any chances. I know how long it's been since there have been sparklings, and I also know how Megatron feels about being outnumbered." The teen put a comforting hand on the warrior's right cheek, which was as far on his face as she could reach.

"Fine. We're going to go to the quarters I share with Prowl." Sunstreaker stood with some help from Prowl, and the three of them made their way to the couple's shared quarters.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **At the 9-Month Mark…**

"PROWL! WHERE'S MY ENERGON?!" Sunstreaker was berth-ridden, being unable to walk for more than a few steps without feeling exhausted. By that time, his sparkling bump was huge, since there were two sparklings growing inside of him. He grunted when one of them kicked him. The little ones were getting stronger, and Sunstreaker couldn't wait until they were born. His human bodyguard, AirStrikeTF, was standing on the berth-side table, working on a jumbo-sized pair of crochet scarves. She had picked out the thickest, strongest, softest yarn she could find, and had managed to get it in dual-colors of black and white and white and gold. Then, Prowl came into the room with two cubes of energon in his hands.

"Sorry for the wait, there was a line this time." The SIC gave the cubes to his bondmate, who quickly downed them, and then promptly fell asleep again. "How often has he done that so far?"

"Just for this morning, he's woken up and fallen back asleep again about 20 times in the past three hours." AirStrikeTF didn't look up from the scarf she had nearly finished crocheting while she was speaking, and Prowl smiled at her. He knew he could trust the human, even though she was prone to violent rages that more often than not resulted in someone getting violently lashed with an electrified whip with metal spikes.

"Well, we only have one more month to go, and he'll be back to his normal self." Prowl used his thumb and forefinger to pinch the bridge of his nose. He was feeling exhausted with having to deal with the violent mood swings that Sunstreaker was going into more and more often as it was getting closer and closer to the sparklings' due date. Primus only knows if he will survive this much longer.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

As Sunstreaker lay on the berth, unable to walk to get his own energon, he was thinking about what might happen after he gives birth to the twins. Would they look like him? Like Prowl? Or would they both be a mix between them? Suddenly, the sound of explosions outside the Ark alerted him to the battle that had just started out there. _Not again… why can't those 'Cons leave me alone?!_ Suddenly, something hit him in the head, and he blacked out.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Prime, we will not fail in taking away those new lives you have fought to protect! They WILL belong to the Decepticons!"

"Give it up, Megatron! We…" Prime was cut off as the familiar sound of Skywarp's teleportation sequence was heard. Looking up, Optimus saw the Seeker hovering in the air, using the thrusters in his feet to fly, and he was carrying something in his arms. "SUNSTREAKER!"

"Decepticons, fall back to base! We have what we came for!" Megatron took off into the air, followed by the other Decepticons. Astrotrain transformed into his space shuttle mode, and Skywarp flew into his cargo hold with the prisoner. After the doors closed, the space shuttle took off and went out of sight.

"SUNNY! NOOOOOOOOO!" Prowl fell to his hands and knees, sobbing. He started to pound the ground with his right fist, cursing the Decepticons with every vile word he knew. Praxum, his father, came over to him, and knelt down to put his arms around his son. Prowl clung to him, sobbing bitterly, as the Lord of Praxus gently stroked the back of his son's head.

"Don't worry, Prowl. We'll get them back. I promise you that we will." Praxum looked off in the direction where the Decepticons had disappeared into the distance. "We'll get them back."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Prowl would not take his energon rations that night. All he could do was sit on the edge of the berth he had shared with his bondmate, sobbing. He heard soft, light footsteps, and looked up a bit to see AirStrikeTF walk in with shopping bags over her shoulders.

"Where's Sunstreaker?"

"The Decepticons took him."

"WHAT?!" The bags were dropped, and it looked like fire burned in the teen's blue-green-gold eyes. She took out her whip, and cracked it in the air angrily. "Great! Just great! Now I'm just SO mad at them! The first 'Con I see is going to get lashed within an inch of their LIFE!"

"I'm glad that you feel the same way I do. It's just… we don't know what they're going to do to him and the unborn twins. I'm so worried right now… there's no telling if they're even alive at this point." Prowl's head sank to his hands again, and he started to cry again. Then, he felt a small, warm hand on his shin, and he looked down at the small teen that was smiling up at him with fire in her eyes.

"Don't worry, Prowl. I'll do everything I can to get them back for you. Even if I have to go to Primus himself to do it!" The teen's determination astounded the SIC, and for the first time since the Decepticons had taken his bondmate, he was comforted.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Sunstreaker groaned as he came back online. As he looked around, he realized that he was no longer in his and Prowl's quarters. Realizing this, his optics widened, and he tried to sit up, but was stopped by straps that were around his arms, legs, and chest. Thoroughly panicked now, he looked around frantically to try to figure out what was going on. What he saw did not comfort him. Standing at a Cybertronian chemistry set, was none other than the Constructicon known as Mixmaster. He was brewing something, and Sunstreaker decided that he didn't want to know what it was.

"Ah, you're awake!" The Constructicon turned to face him, his crimson optics gleaming with a kind of mad fascination. Sunstreaker was vaguely reminded of Wheeljack, but where Wheeljack was crazy in a happy-go-lucky, accident-prone way, Mixmaster was crazy in a cruel, merciless way.

"What do you want with me?!" Sunstreaker was visibly panicking, and he could feel the sparklings in him moving a bit more than usual in response to his fear. Then, he remembered what Ratchet had told him. ' _If you worry and fear too much, it will cause you to give birth way too early!_ ' He forced himself to calm down, not wanting to endanger his sparklings.

"I've just been needing some test subjects for my latest formulas! When Megatron took you from the Autobots, I asked if I could take you for my tests, and he simply handed you over!" The chemist took out a trio of syringes, one with a normal-length needle and two with extended lengths. He filled each one with a mixture he took out of one of his cabinets, and brought them over. "Don't move, or you will just cause yourself to suffer more!"

"NO! Please, don't!" Sunstreaker tried to get away from the chemist, not wanting his unborn sparklings to be experiments to this mad mech, but the restraints kept him from moving away. The Constructicon growled, and grabbed Sunstreaker's head, forcing it to turn to the side, leaving the fuel lines in his neck vulnerable. The Decepticon swiftly injected the mixture into the warrior's main fuel line, and Sunstreaker felt his strength ebb away at a rapid rate, leaving him unable to move, and barely able to remain conscious. He could feel it as Mixmaster prodded his sparkling bump, trying to figure out which sparkling was which. Once the Constructicon decided on which should go next, he held one hand on the sparkling bump to keep the chosen sparkling inside from moving, and Sunstreaker felt a twinge of pain as the longer needle entered his abdomen. He could feel the poor little sparkling kicking to try to get the needle out, but then, to his horror, it went still. The process was repeated for the other sparkling, and it left all three of them helpless to the Constructicon's experiments.

"That's better. No mouthing off, no struggling, and no kicking sparklings. This will make everything MUCH easier for me!" Mixmaster brought out another mixture, and filled the syringe with the normal-length needle with it. He brought it over to the drastically-weakened Autobot, and turned his head again to inject the mixture into his neck. There was a burning feeling in his circuits, and then he blacked out.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Near the Ark, a red, gold, and black mech was creeping through the forest. He was headed to the Ark, and he had the red Autobot symbol on his black shoulders. Suddenly, something or someone pounced on him, snarling. After struggling for a few minutes, his attacker halted, and the mech could turn to see who it was. It was a mech that was only a little bit shorter than he was, and was black, red, and white. He saw the Autobot symbol on the red mech's chest, and he could see that the Autobot was staring at the Autobot symbols on his shoulders.

"Oh, sorry, thought you were a 'Con. My name's Sideswipe. What's yours?" The Autobot -who was now registered in the new mech's databanks as Sideswipe- offered the newcomer a hand to help him stand up.

"I'm Novastrike. By any chance, do you have a twin brother?"

"Yeah… but the 'Cons kidnapped him. And he was carrying twin sparklings. He was nine months pregnant. Why did you ask?"

"Because… I was the father of the first set of twins on Cybertron, but I never even got to see them when they were sparklings. Were you and your brother the first set of sparklings ever born?"

"Yeah… but that must mean…" Novastrike suddenly had Sideswipe in a big hug, causing the red warrior to yelp in surprise.

"I've been looking for you and your brother ever since Primus revived me! Tell me, how was your brother kidnapped, and who is the father of his sparklings?"

"I think you should come back to base for the answers to those questions." Sideswipe led the mech back to the Ark, and introduced him to Prime. "Prime, this is apparently Sunny and I's real father, Novastrike. Dad, this is the mech who adopted us as sparklings, Optimus Prime."

"It's good to meet the one who took care of my sons when they were sparklings." Novastrike shook hands with the Prime, and smirked at him.

"I can see the resemblance between you and the twins. It is obvious that you are truly their father."

"Thanks. Now tell me, what is this about my son being pregnant and getting kidnapped? Who's the father?"

"I'm the father of Sunny's sparklings, and I am also Sunny's bondmate." Prowl stepped forwards, his own father close behind him. "I am Prowl, son of Lord Praxum of Praxus."

"Good to meet you. Now, I'm wanting to meet my other son, so what say you about us going to attack the 'Cons and getting him and the unborn sparklings back?" At Novastrike's words, the Autobots all cheered, and got ready for the attack. Praxum and Novastrike looked at each other, and the same thought ran through both of their minds. _Those Decepticons will pay for what they've done._

 **0o0o0o0o0**

After injecting the third formula into the second sparkling, Mixmaster set aside his syringes, and prepared to scan the warrior to see how he and his unborn young were reacting to his formulas. Suddenly, there was the sound of something exploding, and the Constructicon jumped in surprise. He went over to the door, and peeked out. After seeing angry Autobots storming down the corridor and blasting each door open, he ducked back inside, and started to prepare another syringe. A groan from the test subject alerted Mixmaster to the awakening of Sunstreaker. He grabbed another dose of the weakening formula, and prepared to inject it into the main fuel line in the warrior's neck. Suddenly, the door was blown open, just as he had injected the formula. He pulled the needle from the fuel line, and coughed in the smoke. Looking through the haze, he saw two pairs of blindingly bright blue optics piercing through the gloom.

"What. Did. You. Do. To. My. SON?!" A large, heavily-built, red, golden yellow, and black mech charged forwards, followed by the mech that Mixmaster knew was Lord Praxum. There was no time to react, as the new mech's fist connected full and hard with the side of the Constructicon's face, sending him flying backwards. The punch, coupled with the head-on collision with the wall, effectively knocked Mixmaster unconscious. Quickly, the two mechs turned to check on the prisoner, and saw that he was unconscious, and sported several needle-sized holes in his abdomen and the main fuel line in his neck. "That fragger! We've got to get Sunstreaker out of here NOW!" Novastrike quickly removed the restraints, and gently took his unconscious son into his arms. The warrior was barely breathing, and it was obvious that the Decepticon had done something to both him and his unborn sparklings.

"Come, Novastrike, let's get him out of here." Praxum led the way out of the room, and acted as a guard and escort as they made their way out of the Decepticon base. Once they reached the tower that was currently stuck above sea level, they met up with the other Autobots, who were immediately worried about the mother-to-be. They got outside, and loaded up into Skyfire, heading back to their own base to take care of Sunstreaker.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Ratchet, will he be all right? And what of the sparklings?" Novastrike, Prowl, Sideswipe, and Praxum were hovering over the unconscious warrior like mother hens, hoping for good news.

"From what these scans say, Mixmaster apparently injected him with two doses of a mixture that would drain the strength from Sunstreaker, and another one that seems to have altered his genetics."

"WHAT?!" The others were horrified, and Prowl crashed. Praxum set about trying to wake up his son, while Novastrike hugged Sideswipe to try to calm them both down. Sideswipe was clinging to his father, and was crying.

"H-how did it affect him, Doc?" Novastrike looked at the CMO with a look that plainly said he was hopeful it didn't do much.

"Thankfully, it only seems to have made the component he installed into himself as part of his genetic makeup. Back during the Golden Ages, he installed a component in the junction between his mouth cavity and his throat that enabled him to breathe fire. Apparently, it is now a part of his genetics. However, I don't know what happened to the sparklings other than being given a dose of the weakening formula each. I can see evidence that the little ones were injected twice each, the first obviously being the weakening formula, but the second one I'm not sure." Ratchet's words made Sideswipe break down in sobs again, and the CMO pitied them all. He did not like to be the bearer of bad news.

"Is there anything we can do for them?" Prowl had just woken up, and was now holding one limp, golden yellow hand as he looked at his bondmate's expressionless face.

"All we can do is try to make Sunstreaker comfortable, and monitor their progress." Ratchet went into the side room, and came back with four chairs, setting them up around the berth the pregnant mech was lying on. "You all can stay with him if you want. I won't kick you out like I usually do."

"Thank you, Ratchet." Prowl sat down in the chair closes to Sunstreaker's head, still holding the warrior's left hand in his own. There were tears at the corners of the SICs optics, and the other three sat down to wait for the mother-to-be to wake up. Praxum sat in the seat next to his son, while Novastrike and Sideswipe sat on the other side of the berth. The twins' father gently brushed his fingers across Sunstreaker's face, wishing that they had been under different circumstances.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

The next morning, Sunstreaker woke up to see that he was back in the Ark, in the med bay. Turning his head, he saw Prowl, Praxum, Sideswipe, and a mech he did not know sitting in chairs positioned around the berth he was lying on, and he noticed that Prowl and the new mech were each holding one of his hands. Suddenly, Prowl's optics onlined, and they stared into each other's optics for a full minute before Prowl registered that Sunstreaker was awake.

"Sunny! Oh, I was so worried about you!" Prowl's voice was a hoarse whisper, and the SIC leaned over to give his bondmate a one-armed, gentle hug. Sunstreaker smiled weakly, and buried his face in Prowl's shoulder.

"It's good to be home, Copper." Then, Sunstreaker remembered. "Our sparklings! Prowl, Mixmaster, he…"

"We know, Sunny. Ratchet said that they'll probably be fine. We just need to wait until the weakening formula Mixmaster injected into them wears off, all right?"

"All right, Prowl…" Sunstreaker kept his face pressed into the junction between Prowl's shoulder and neck, not wanting to move away and find that it was all a dream. "If I'm dreaming and I'm still in that fragging lab, then I don't want to wake up."

"Sunny, this is no dream. You're safe, the sparklings are safe, and we've even found your true father!" That caused Sunstreaker to jerk his head away to stare at Prowl.

"M-my father?!"

"Yes, Sunny. He's been very worried about you." The SIC gestured to the new mech who was holding Sunstreaker's other hand, and the warrior looked at him in confusion.

"But… my father didn't look like that, and he sure as pit didn't care about me."

"The one you used to call your father was actually your uncle. Novastrike is your true father, Sunny." At that point, Novastrike woke up, and saw that his son was awake and staring at him.

"Son…"

"…Dad?" Sunstreaker pulled his hand out of Prowl's grasp to shakily raise it to Novastrike's face. "Is it really you?"

"Yes, Sunstreaker, it's me. I was so worried about you… my son." The heavily-built mech that was colored exactly like Sunstreaker's flight suit gently hugged his son, crying softly. "Your mother… she ran away after killing me while you were still within her. I never got to see you when you were born, but Primus gave me another chance at life and spending time with my family… and for that I am grateful."

"Dad… I can't believe it's you…" Sunstreaker was still in a state of shock, but then he started to feel that familiar tickling sensation he had been longing for inside of him, and he started snickering.

"What's so funny?"

"N-nothing, Dad… heh, little ones are becoming active again, and they keep tickling me…" Sunstreaker was crying tears of joy as he felt the slight, tickling, fluttering sensation in his tummy, and he basked in the knowledge that his sparklings were going to be fine.

"Sunny, I'm so glad they are moving around again." Prowl carefully hugged him, then placed a hand on Sunstreaker's sparkling bump. "I'm feeling little kicks under my hand, too."

"Yeah, little ones are getting restless. Let's just hope that nothing else bad happens."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **One Month Later…**

Sunstreaker kept shifting on the berth he shared with Prowl. He was getting more and more uncomfortable the closer he got to the due date, and it wasn't helping his mood swings any. It also aggravated him that he was unable to get off of the berth to move around. Prowl was lying next to him, and the SIC gently placed a hand on Sunstreaker's swollen tummy, and that helped to calm the mother-to-be a bit.

"Prowl?"

"Yes, Sunny?"

"When do you think they'll want out?"

"Ratchet said sometime within the next 24 hours is most likely."

"What time is it now?"

"Let me see…" Prowl checked his internal chronometer, then turned back to Sunstreaker. "It's only 7:00 AM. You should get more rest."

"I don't think- GAH!" Sunstreaker suddenly wrapped his arms around his swollen belly, and Prowl jerked into a sitting position.

"Sunny?! What's wrong?!" The SIC was watching with a worried expression as Sunstreaker lay groaning and panting on the berth, until he noticed the small, growing pool of fluids appearing under the warrior's legs.

"Prowl… I think… they're coming…"

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **TO BE CONTINUED…**


	5. Birth and Surprises

Prowl's optics widened. Sunstreaker was going into labor! He attempted to pick his bondmate up to carry him to the med bay, but the combined weight of Sunstreaker AND the unborn twins made him too heavy for the SIC to carry. Frantically, he got on the comm. with Sunstreaker's father.

* _Prowl to Novastrike, please wake up and respond!_ *

* _Novastrike here. Prowl, what's going on? It's only 7:00 in the morning! Not to mention that it's Christmas Eve!_ *

* _Sunny's gone into labor! I need help to get him to the med bay!_ *

* _I'm on my way! You need to go to Ratchet and tell him to get ready for Sunstreaker's arrival there!_ *

* _Will do! Prowl out._ * Prowl ended the link, and glanced back at Sunstreaker.

"Sunny, your dad is on the way here to get you, all right? I'm going to let Ratchet know to get ready." Before Prowl could leave, however, there was a hand on his arm, and when he looked back, bright, pain-filled cerulean optics looked pleadingly into his own.

"P-please… stay with me, Prowl…" Sunstreaker's hand slid lower on Prowl's arm, and took hold of his hand. The SIC sat down with him, and sent a message to his father to tell Ratchet for him.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Ratchet awoke to the sound of someone pounding on his door. Grumpily, he got off of his berth, and trudged over to the door, and opened it. Praxum, the Lord of Praxus, was standing there, looking like he had just run a marathon.

"Praxum, what…"

"Sunstreaker just went into labor. Prowl and Novastrike are bringing him to the med bay now!" Praxum's words were spoken in between pants for breath, and Ratchet's optics widened.

"Thanks for telling me!" The CMO rushed into the med bay, and as he was getting ready, he could hear Sunstreaker's pained screams getting closer VERY quickly. Just as he had finished getting a berth ready with the supplies he needed, the door opened, and Novastrike rushed in, a screaming Sunstreaker in his arms. Prowl followed the two closely, and Ratchet quickly guided them to the berth he had prepared. "Stay calm, Sunstreaker, and don't push yet! You're not ready!"

"AH! Okay, Ratch'. AUGH!" Sunstreaker's hands clawed at the berth under him as contractions rippled through him. The CMO started to time how close the contractions were to each other. Two minutes each! Hearing the screech of metal scraping against metal, the CMO saw that Sunstreaker's claws had popped out of the tips of his fingers, and were now gouging little trenches in the berth.

"Sunstreaker! Claws! RETRACT CLAWS NOW!" Ratchet whapped one of the warrior's hands, and the mother-to-be retracted his claws back into his fingers. Prowl took hold of the warrior's right hand, while Novastrike held his left. They both winced when Sunstreaker squeezed their hands so tightly that they were being slowly crushed.

"Ratchet, how long will Sunstreaker be in labor before the sparklings are born?" Novastrike looked worriedly at his in-pain son, then back at the medic.

"It's hard to say. It can take anywhere from a few minutes to 20 hours or more! I remember when Mirage's mother was giving birth. She was in labor for 21 hours until Mirage came out of her. The father's hand was crushed beyond recognition."

"OVER TWENTY HOURS?!" Sunstreaker's pained scream was accented by the shocked, pain-filled look in his optics, while Prowl and Novastrike looked at their hands as if to say ' _well, it's been nice knowing you, old friend._ '

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Sunstreaker's screams could be heard all throughout the Ark, waking just about EVERYONE up, except for the Dinobots, who could sleep through ANYTHING. The others quickly pin-pointed the source of the sound, and rushed to the med bay doors. Sideswipe was the first one there, and he pounded on the door with his fist.

"Ratchet! Let me in, my bro needs me there!" The door opened, and the red twin was quickly ushered inside. The others had to settle for sitting outside the med bay, waiting to see when the twins would be born.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Hours Later…**

"RATCHET! HOW MUCH LONGER WILL THIS TAKE?!" Sunstreaker's screams were getting louder with every passing hour, and the CMO tiredly checked his internal chronometer.

"You've been in labor for 23 hours now, so probably not much longer." Ratchet checked to see how far the warrior had dilated, then nodded. "All right, you're ready. I need you to push when I count to three, all right?" The warrior nodded. "One… two… three! Push!"

"Urggghhh. AARGH! PROWL, I AM GOING TO RIP OFF YOUR DOORWINGS, BEAT YOU WITH THEM, HAVE RATCHET REASSEMBLE YOU, BEAT YOU AGAIN, THEN FEED YOUR PIECES TO GRIMLOCK!" The warrior squeezed the two hands he was holding onto tighter, and something snapped in Prowl's hand.

"As fun as that sounds, Sunstreaker, I need you to push again. One… two… three! PUSH!"

"AAUGH! FORGET FEEDING YOU TO GRIMLOCK, PROWL, BECAUSE YOU'RE GOING STRAIGHT INTO THE VOLCANO!"

"All right, I can see the top of the first sparkling's head. Push again!"

"AAAUUUUUGGGHHHH! FRAGGING PRIMUS, WHEN THIS IS OVER, I AM GOING TO DISMANTLE YOU, PROWL!"

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Everyone outside the med bay was snickering as they heard Sunstreaker's threats against Prowl getting more and more creative, the latest one being that he would literally rip off the Datsun's doorwings, impale them on his chevron, and then throw him to a pack of Sharkticons. Suddenly, they heard the age-old fanfare that announced the birth of a new life. The sparkling's cries could be heard even over the continued screaming of the warrior, and they all crowded as close as they could to the door to try to hear the announcement of the sparkling's gender. Then, Bumblebee, who was the closest, turned to the others.

"It's a femme!" Footsteps from the other side of the door caused everyone to back away, and when the door opened, Sideswipe stood holding a small, blanket-wrapped bundle in his arms. The twin smiled at them, and gently folded back one part of the blanket to reveal a little sparkling femme. She was Praxian in design, with elegantly-shaped doorwings, and a color pattern similar to Prowls, except she had golden coloration where Prowl had black. She had a little red chevron on her forehead, and headfins like Sunstreaker's on the sides of her head.

"Awwww…" Everyone cooed at the little one, and that was when the sparkling woke up. Her optics were a beautiful sapphire blue, and she happily chirped at everyone. Then, they heard another, lower-pitched sparkling cry from inside the med bay.

"It's a mech!" Sunstreaker's screams had ceased.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Inside the med bay, the new mother had gone limp, releasing the now-crushed hands of his father and Prowl. Sunstreaker's optics were offline, and Praxum was now holding a slightly larger bundle than the first in his arms. All of a sudden, there was a crackling sound, and Skywarp and Megatron appeared in the middle of the med bay.

"Give me the sparklings, Autobots!" The Decepticon leader snatched the newborn mech from the Praxian Lord's arms, and held him in front of him. "Hmmph."

"The sparkling did NOT like the rough treatment, and suddenly hiccupped, sending a burst of flames right into the warlord's face!

"AAUGHH!" Megatron dropped the sparkling, and his hands flew to his charred face. Praxum dove for his grandson, and caught him just before hitting the ground. The two Decepticons quickly retreated from the Autobot base, and Ratchet went to check the two newborns' mother.

"Primus! He's not breathing!" The CMO scooped up the limp lambo into his arms, and ran into another part of the med bay. "Wheeljack, you fix the other two! Praxum and Sideswipe, keep an eye on the sparklings!"

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Ratchet managed to revive the warrior, and Sunstreaker was allowed to hold his sparklings shortly after. With one sparkling in each arm, the warrior was still hooked up to an oxygen machine. Prowl came in, and he smiled at his bondmate and children. They hadn't really gotten a good look at their son earlier because of the whole "Megatron Attack" fiasco, but now they studied his features carefully. He looked a lot like Sunstreaker, and he was colored mainly in black and gold, but he had white designs on his chest and shoulders, surprisingly similar to Praxum's doorwing designs.

"Looks like some of your father's genetics skipped a generation, eh Prowl?" Sunstreaker looked lovingly at his bondmate, who smiled tenderly at him.

"Yes, but I love our children. They are both perfect, and I love them."

"WE love them, Copper. Remember, I'm still your bondmate AND their mother." Sunstreaker settled against the pillow propped up behind him again. The yellow warrior let out a contented sigh, and looked tiredly at the SIC. "Ten long, hard months, and they're finally here. I've been waiting for this day for a long time, and now that it's finally here, I don't think I can be any happier!"

"Neither can I, Sunny. Now that they are born, what shall we name them?"

"Hmm… I was thinking Goldstream for the femme, but what should we name the mech?"

"Perhaps the name Sunfire is best, considering what he did to Megatron shortly after his birth."

"Sunfire it is then." Sunstreaker then yawned, and Prowl looked at him worriedly.

"Maybe I should take them for now, and let you rest."

"Yes, I think that would be best." The first-time mother handed the sleeping sparklings to Prowl, and then settled down to rest. "Merry Christmas, Prowl.

"Merry Christmas, Sunny." The SIC looked tenderly at the little lives in his arms, and walked to the quarters he usually shared with Sunstreaker, as the yellow warrior fell asleep.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **One Week Later…**

"Sunny?"

"Yeah, Prowl?"

"Is it your turn or mine to check on the sparklings?"

"Yours." The yellow warrior winced as he heard the sparklings crying in demand for their energon.

"Very well. I'll feed them." Prowl tiredly got off of the berth, and took the baby bottles of low-grade energon over to the sparklings, who were in their shared crib. However, when he got there, he was surprised by a small cloud hovering over it, and the small snowflakes drifting down. "What in the name of Primus…"

"What is it?"

"Sunny, you need to see this…" Prowl was trying to keep his logic circuits from crashing as he stared at the strange sight. When Sunstreaker came over, he took one look, and freaked out.

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF PRIMUS IS HAPPENING?! THAT IS SO NOT NORMAL!" The warrior scooped his sparklings out of the crib, and the cloud seemed to magically vanish. The sparklings opened their optics, looked around, and then reached for the energon-filled baby bottles that Prowl was holding.

"Da…da…" Little Goldstream struggled to speak, surprising her parents. Sunstreaker looked at his bondmate with shock in his optics.

"Prowl… I think she just talked!"

"She did, Sunny!" Then, little Sunfire looked up at his mother.

"Mama?" Sunstreaker's focus shifted to his son, tears of joy in his optics.

"That's right, Sunfire, I'm your mother." After exchanging Goldstream with Prowl for the little mech's bottle, Sunstreaker brought the energon-filled bottle close to Sunfire's mouth, and the little one latched his mouth onto the tip, sucking the energon greedily. Then, Prowl yelped. "What is it, Copper?"

"Something just shocked me!" Prowl then got a mischievous look on his face, and poked Sunstreaker with one finger. The resulting static shock caused the warrior to jump slightly.

"Ow! Prowl!" Both adults started to laugh, and they exchanged the static shock until the built-up electricity dissipated. By that time, they had managed to feed both of their sparklings all of their energon that was in the bottles, and the little ones were sleeping soundly once more.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

The next morning, Sunstreaker was in the rec room with Prowl and their twin sparklings. The little ones were having fun crawling around their parents' feet, the mech making little rainclouds, and the femme somehow turning the rain to snow. The other Autobots were staring at the little ones in awe, racking their processors for any clue as to why they could control certain things. Suddenly, Perceptor, who was sitting with the sparklings' parents, got an idea.

"Sunstreaker, do you recall when the Decepticons apprehended you, and used you and your unborn offspring as test subjects for his new formulas?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I believe that those formulas altered their genetic makeup slightly, and gave them abilities that are far beyond those of most Cybertronians. I would have to take a sample of the little ones' energon to be sure, but I believe that the Decepticons had somehow gotten ahold of genetic coding from certain Winged Guardians, thus resulting in their abilities." Stunned, Sunstreaker turned to Prowl, who was looking confused.

"Sunny, what did he just say?"

"He basically said that the chemical mixtures Mixmaster injected into our sparklings before they were born contained a bit of genetic coding from specific Winged Guardians. I don't know how they got ahold of it, though. We'll probably need more research."

"Oh. So… our children were genetically altered like you were?"

"Yeah, but for our kids, it wasn't just changing genetic structure to include an upgrade like what happened to me, but it somehow added coding that gave them abilities that only a few besides the Winged Guardians have."

"I see… what do we do about it?" Prowl looked at the sparklings worriedly, racking his processor for any and all information he had on the Winged Guardians and their individual abilities.

"Not sure. Perceptor says that he'll need an energon sample from each of them to determine what was used. He thinks that some of the chemicals may be left over from when Mixmaster got ahold of us."

"The little ones won't like that."

"I know, but what choice do we have?"

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"All right, little ones, this will only hurt for a few moments, all right?" Perceptor held up a very small needle that was attached to a small shatter-proof glass tube. The sparklings shifted uneasily, but the presence of their parents helped them stay calm. However, when Perceptor put the little needle in Sunfire's arm, the sparkling started crying and screaming up a storm. Literally. As the microscope-former pulled out the needle, he was getting drenched by the rain falling from a cloud above himself and the sparkling.

"Hurts! Hurts! Hurts!" Sunfire buried his face in Sunstreaker's chest once his mother had picked him up, and the sparkling kept crying.

"Shh, shh, shh… It's all right, Sunfire… the needle's out of you now, you'll be fine…" Sunstreaker's soothing voice was slowly calming the distraught sparkling down, and Perceptor took advantage of the distraction to repeat the procedure on Goldstream. The little femme screamed, and at the exact moment when the needle was completely out of her arm, an electric field formed around her, and threw the scientist backwards.

"Hate neele! Hate, hate, HATE! It hurt!" The electrical field shrank, and then dissipated, as the little femme kept crying and screaming her hate for the needle. Once the electricity was gone, Prowl swiftly picked up his daughter, and cuddled her.

"It's all right, Goldstream… daddy's got you, you'll be fine…" Prowl glanced worriedly at Perceptor, who was shakily getting to his feet.

"Well, THAT was unexpected…" The scientist checked the small vial that was attached to the needle, and was relieved to find it unharmed. "Luckily, the electric charge did not affect the sample. You should take them back to your quarters now to calm them down. I'll let you know if I find anything."

"Thank you, Perceptor." Sunstreaker motioned for Prowl to follow, and the bonded couple left the lab with their children safe in their arms.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Optimus Prime to the Winged Guardian base on Cybertron, come in Airstrike." The Prime stood at Teletraan 1's monitor, trying to get a signal to the top-secret Winged Guardian base stationed somewhere on Cybertron. Suddenly, the image cleared up, and he could see the profile of a tall femme with wings that was colored in purple, black, and dark blue. The femme turned around to face the screen, and Prime could see her emerald-green optics and the dark blue winglike decorations on either side of her face. She walked closer to the screen, until he could only see her top half. The femme folded her right hand over the blue diamond on her chest in the Winged Guardian gesture of greeting and respect. Knowing the customs of those elite warrior femmes, Optimus Prime mimicked the gesture.

* _Greetings, Optimus Prime of the Autobots. May I ask what gives me the pleasure of this conversation?_ *

"Something very disturbing. Within the past two months, Sunstreaker, who had been nine months pregnant with twin sparklings, was kidnapped by the Decepticons, and he and his unborn sparklings were used as test subjects for new formulas by the Constructicon Mixmaster. All three survived, but it appears that their genetic structure was slightly altered." Prime could see the femme on-screen stiffen with shock, so he assumed that she had overlooked that within the massive web that her mind was the center of. "The twins, a femme named Goldstream and a mech named Sunfire, have recently found to have powers disturbingly similar to those of a few of your femmes. After looking at the records, we've found the powers that match four of the Winged Guardians. Goldstream has the ability to control ice and electricity, so that means Frostwing and Meridian. Sunfire, who also inherited Sunstreaker's ability to breathe fire, has been found to have the ability to control both fire and weather, so that means Firedancer and Raindancer."

* _This is disturbing news indeed. I shall summon the four you mentioned, and we will speak to them about this… situation._ * The Winged Guardian seemed to stare off into the distance, and, after a few minutes, four others entered the room.

 _*Sister, why have we been summoned? Has something happened?_ * A femme with red optics, and colored in rich purple, bright blue, and bright blue-green stepped forwards, her wings shuffling on her back.

* _I will let the Prime explain. Something has happened on Earth, and it concerns you four. Prime, would you please explain?_ *

"Very well. Guardians, just one week ago, Sunstreaker gave birth to twin sparklings, one mech and one femme. One month previous, Sunstreaker had been kidnapped while the sparklings were still unborn. The Decepticons took them back to their base, and allowed the Constructicon Mixmaster experiment on them." A collective gasp from the four Winged Guardians, excluding Airstrike, could be heard through the comm. screen. "Yes, they allowed him to experiment on a pregnant mech and his unborn young. We didn't know what had happened to the sparklings until after they were born, however, and we have recently discovered that they have powers similar to those that you four possess. Frostwind and Meridian, the femme sparkling named Goldstream has your abilities to control ice and electricity. Raindancer and Firedancer, the mech sparkling named Sunfire has your abilities to control fire and weather. We suspect that someone took small bits of genetic coding from you four, sent it to Earth, and was then injected into the unborn sparklings by Mixmaster."

* _What of the mother, Sunstreaker? How was he affected?_ * The palest of the Winged Guardians, an ice-colored femme named Frostwind, spoke up.

"All that happened to him was that the fire-breathing component he had installed in himself during the Golden Ages became a part of his genealogy, and that ability was inherited by Sunfire." Optimus Prime plugged a data-holding device into Teletraan 1, and typed something on the keyboard. "I am sending you exact statistics that we have found with our recent CNA testing of the sparklings. The first file is Goldstream, and the second is Sunfire."

* _We thank you for alerting us, Prime. After hearing what you have to say, we believe we have the answer. Just a few Earth months ago, we were each wounded in a battle, and we think that perhaps Shockwave salvaged some of the energon that each of us leaked, and tried to separate the coding for our abilities from the rest of our genetic coding._ * Raindancer, the femme with the uniquely-shaped visor, spoke in her musical lilt, which always seemed to calm those that heard her.

"Thank you for helping, Winged Guardians. I will send you an update soon. In the meantime, you need to destroy all samples and information that Shockwave and anyone else has on your genetics! If they somehow manage to give an ADULT Cybertronian your abilities, it would be disastrous." The screen turned off, and Prime sighed wearily.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **TO BE CONTINUED…**


	6. Newly Reunited

Sunstreaker sat down tiredly in his and Prowl's shared quarters, glad that he finally had a day to just relax. He smirked when he remembered the look on his brother's face when he had dropped his twins off to spend the day with their Uncle Sideswipe.

-FLASHBACK-

 _"Ok, kids, you're going to spend the day with your Uncle Sides while Mommy and Daddy get some off time, all right?"_

 _"Sunny, you DO know that I'm going to be in my office working, don't you?" Prowl looked at his bonded questioningly, one optic ridge raised._

 _"Yeah, and that's your idea of 'off time', Copper. You think I don't know that?" The yellow Lambo smirked at the SIC, who merely smiled back. All the while, Sideswipe was staring at them in open-mouthed horror._

 _"You're leaving me alone. With your kids. Who are, may I add, extremely scary and can cause it to hail on my head non-stop? YOU'RE REALLY DOING THIS?!" Sideswipe looked down at the sparklings standing by his feet, who were looking at him with looks of pure innocence on their faces._

 _"Sides, I think you can handle them. It'll be FINE." Sunstreaker waved at his kids, then walked out of the room, followed by Prowl._

-END FLASHBACK-

"Ah, to have some time ALONE…" Sunstreaker lay down on the berth he shared with Prowl, and stretched his arms out to both sides. It felt good to just have time to himself. He took out his art supplies, and set them up beside the window. As he painted what he saw through the window, his optics kept seeing something his processor didn't register, but somehow, it found its way into the picture. He was in that state he often found himself in whenever he was back in his element. He was an artist as spark, and when he was painting, he would often paint without even noticing anything he was doing, or what was going on around him.

When he was done, he was once again aware of his surroundings, and he noticed what he had painted.

"What in the name of Primus…" The warrior leaned in closer to the painting he had just completed, staring at one side of the outside image. It looked similar to some kind of Earth lily, but its petals were more elegant and beautiful than anything he had ever seen before. It was an enormous flower, and standing next to it was a femme that he had never seen before. She would have been about twice as tall as the flower if she had been standing, and she was colored like a rainbow, in hues so vibrant and eye-catching, he thought it would have been impossible not to notice her. Her optics seemed to match her paint job, a swirl of bright colors that were even brighter than the rest of her, and she had wings on her back that were like those of the Winged Guardians, but much more elegant and beautiful. The femme was holding onto the flower with one hand, but her face was turned towards him, and seemed to stare directly into his spark.

Sunstreaker waited until the painting was dry, and then set it aside until he could figure out what to do with it. He looked out the window again, but there was no sign that anyone had been there, nor was there any sign of the mysterious giant flower. He rubbed his temples with his thumb and forefinger, trying to figure out WHAT THE SCRAP was going on then. Feeling tired, he went over to the berth, and lay down for a nap.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 _"Greetings, young one…" Sunstreaker looked around frantically, trying to pin-point the source of the voice he was hearing._

 _"Who's there?! Show yourself!" He extended his claws, ready to fight if the need arose. However, a light flowed around them, causing them to retract again. "What the frag?! What's going on?!"_

 _"Now, now, don't be that way…" Sunstreaker looked up when there was a flash of light in front of him, and was shocked to see a giant, glowing crystal flower in front of him. It was as tall as he was, and it looked exactly like the one he had painted._

 _"What the…" Looking around again, he saw the tall femme from his painting standing next to him. She appeared as a rainbow angel, with a sweeping crest on her head, and wing-like decorations on either side of her face. "Who are you?!"_

 _"I am Primera, bondmate to Primus. Mother to the Winged Guardians. I come before you for one reason. I need you to share who I am with the other Cybertronians. You, and you alone, have the skills I require to do so."_

 _"What can I do, then?"_

 _"You are an artist, are you not? Fear not, young mech, for I shall not harm you. I will appear to you when you are painting landscapes, and in those paintings, I will appear as I do now, for this is my true form. You are special, Sunstreaker, for you still have a light within you that shines brighter than that even of my own daughters. You, and you alone, are my Chosen." The femme stepped over to the flower, and cupped her hands under its blossom._

 _"What am I to do with the paintings?"_

 _"Share them, Sunstreaker. Share them with your friends, with all of Cybertron. The war will end soon, I promise you this. You will be able to raise your family in peace, once the battles are no more. My mate, Primus, favors you. It was his doing that enabled your children to be gifted so, and he has promised that you and your brother, along with whomever you both love most, will be able to return to life countless times, even after death. You will always be able to find your family, and you will forever be able to do things that others may only dream of." Primera looked down at him with her constantly color-swirling optics, and smiled at him. "Now awaken, Chosen, for they are waiting for you…"_

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"He's waking up…"

"Nngh… Ratchet… what…" The warrior slowly onlined his optics to find himself in the med bay, with 5 mechs staring down at him worriedly. He could see Ratchet, Prowl, Praxum, Novastrike, and Sideswipe.

"Thank Primus… Ratchet, do you know what happened to him?" Prowl turned his head to look at the CMO, who shrugged.

"No clue. From my scans, he was totally healthy, so there was no reason to go into a coma like that."

"Son, are you feeling all right?" Novastrike, Sunstreaker's father, lifted a hand to place it on his son's shoulder.

"Fine, Dad. What happened?" Sunstreaker sat up, confused as to how he got to the med bay in the first place.

"Prowl went to get something from your shared quarters, and he found you unconscious on the berth. He tried to wake you up, but you wouldn't respond." Praxum, Prowl's father, was the one who had spoken.

"Sunstreaker, what's the last thing you remember?" Ratchet's question made Sunstreaker's optics widen until they seemed to bug out of his head.

"Primus… THAT REALLY HAPPENED IN MY HEAD?! Sunstreaker grabbed his headfins, trying not to have a panic attack. "Slagslagslagslag… HOW did I imagine someone I didn't even know EXISTED until now?!"

"Sunny, calm down, what are you talking about?!" Prowl was getting worried now, and he pried his bondmate's hands off of his headfins before they caused any damage. Sunstreaker looked at him, and then pulled something out of subspace.

"Look at this! I painted this shortly before I went to take a nap, which you guys actually classified as a coma, and I didn't even register that I was painting that femme or the flower! Then, while I was unconscious, SHE SPOKE TO ME IN MY HEAD!" Sunstreaker was obviously starting to freak out, and Ratchet looked closely at the femme and flower in the painting.

"Sunstreaker, what did she say to you?"

"You actually believe me?!"

"Yeah. She looks like one of the Winged Guardians. I would believe you if it was one of them or someone related to them involved."

"Well… she said that she is actually their mother, and that her name is Primera. She said that she would appear to me whenever I paint landscapes like this one, and that I should share them with you guys and all of Cybertron." Sunstreaker was having a hard time remembering anything else, but it looked like the others were actually believing him.

"Well, I'll see if we can get identity verification from Airstrike. She's probably the only one besides you who would be able to recognize this femme, and if what you say is true, then she'll know if it's her mother or not." Ratchet walked over to the comm. screen that was in the med bay, and turned it on. "Ratchet to Airstrike, come in please." The screen fizzled, then cleared up to show an image of a beautiful bird-winged femme that was tri-colored in purple, black, and dark blue, with emerald green optics. She had dark blue winglike decorations on either side of her face, and a dark blue crest like a single point sweeping back over her head from just above the bridge of her nose.

* _I am here. Greetings, Medic Ratchet. To what do I owe the pleasure of this communication?_ * The femme folded her hand over the dark blue diamond shape on her chest in the Winged Guardian gesture of respect, and bowed her head slightly, then returned to her former relaxed position. Ratchet mimicked the gesture, and then showed the Winged Guardian the painting that Sunstreaker had created.

"Do you recognize the femme in this painting?" Airstrike's optics widened in shock, and then suddenly narrowed.

* _Where did you get that painting? Who was able to see her?_ * The Winged Guardian's voice was full of a seething venom, shocking everyone in the med bay.

"Sunstreaker painted it. Shortly after its completion, he went to take a nap, and instead lapsed into a coma, during which he claims that this femme spoke to him. She claims to be your mother, named Primera. Ring any bells?"

* _What she said was true. Until now, the only one besides my father Primus knew who she was and what she looked like. May I speak to Sunstreaker?_ *

"Let's ask him." The medic turned away from the screen, and pressed a button. The screen popped off of its stand, and started to hover in the air. "You now have control of this screen, so you may use it to travel anywhere in the med bay."

* _Thank you_ * The screen flew over to where Sunstreaker was sitting on the medical berth, and hovered in front of him. * _Sunstreaker, what did my mother say to you?_ *

"I don't remember too much, but I do remember her saying something about her appearing to me whenever I do my landscape paintings, and that I should share them with the others here on Earth and on Cybertron. Something about being chosen. It's all a bit vague right now." Sunstreaker put a hand to the side of his head, trying to jostle his memory so that he could remember more, but it was no use.

* _I see. Well, in that case, I'll have to make a two-way connection for you within what is called the Great Link. The Great Link is what joins all creatures in this universe, like a massive web of unmeasurable proportions, of which I am the center. The two-way connection will allow you to come into contact with me more easily, so that I may give you guidance whenever you need it. And you WILL need it. Prime has also notified me about the situation with your sparklings. They will need training to learn to control their abilities, so I will be sending the four Winged Guardians that they gained their powers from there to teach them. Also, those four will act as extra protection so that the young ones will not be harmed or captured by the Decepticons._ * Airstrike turned the screen to face Ratchet again, and she put her thumbs and forefingers together to form a diamond shape, and bowed her head to press the tips of her forefingers to her forehead. Once the others had done the same, the Winged Guardian flew the screen back to its stand, reattached them, and cut the connection.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Sunstreaker and Prowl stood outside the Ark with their twin sparklings, watching the skies. It was night, and the stars above were particularly beautiful, all because Sunfire somehow cleared the skies completely to give them the best view. Suddenly, there was a humming sound that filled the air, and there was a multicolored blur flying in a circle above the Ark at extremely high speeds. A sonic boom reverberated throughout the clearing as the blur slowed down to below the speed of sound. When it slowed down further, four different blurs flew out from it, and landed in front of the small family in crouched running positions. The blur in the air soon stopped, and a brightly-hued femme with rapidly-moving wings seemed to float down to the ground. The other four straightened, and appeared more regal than any royal Cybertronian could. When the last femme's wings stopped moving, the humming sound ceased.

"Bonded Autobot couple Prowl and Sunstreaker, I presume?" A purple, bright blue, and bright blue-green femme with swirling red, pink, and purple optics stepped forwards, folding a hand over the bright blue, vaguely tulip-shaped pattern on her chest, and bowed her head slightly; a gesture mimicked by the other femmes with her.

"We are." Prowl and Sunstreaker returned the Winged Guardian gesture of greeting, and motioned for their children to do the same. With wide optics, Goldstream and Sunfire copied their parents, and when all of them returned to their relaxed positions, one of the new femmes crouched down to get a better look at the sparklings.

"They're SOO cute!" The femme gently brushed Goldstream's left cheek with her hand, smiling brightly.

"Now, Firedancer, you KNOW better than to just do that without permission!" The red, orange, and pink femme that was busy adoring the sparklings got a whack to the back of her head by a visored femme that was painted in shades of blue. The femme's visor was slightly similar to Jazz's visor, but it had a unique style to it that practically screamed 'NOT A NORMAL FEMME!' Not that the wings were a dead giveaway or anything like that.

"Awww… but Raindancer, they're just so ADORABLE!" The fire-colored femme pouted at her sister, her slightly rosy, golden optics seeming to pout along with her.

"I know they are, but you still should know better! You're OLDER than me for our Father's sake!" The blue Winged Guardian -obviously named Raindancer- whapped her sister in the back of the head again, earning a slap to the face in retaliation from her older sister. Before it could escalate into an all-out battle, the fourth femme, who was colored in pale whites and blues like ice, stepped between them and stretched her arms out to the sides, halting them.

"STOP IT! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT THE SPARKLINGS ARE WATCHING US! UGH! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I'M ACTUALLY THE YOUNGEST OF US!" The femme's pale, blue-green optics flashed with barely-contained rage, and the other two settled down.

"Sorry, Frostwind."

"Yeah, sorry. Please don't freeze our wings." Firedancer shifted nervously on her feet, and Raindancer looked really nervous.

"I won't freeze your wings. Now, how about we introduce ourselves PROPERLY to this family?"

"That is a fine idea, Sister." The last Winged Guardian, the brightly-hued pink, bright purple, and gold femme stepped forwards. "I am Starblitz. It is a pleasure to meet you all at last. My beloved, Red Alert, has told me much about you over our private communication system." Sunstreaker and Prowl stared at her in awe.

"It's good to meet you too. I didn't know that Red had a girlfriend."

"It's a long-distance relationship, I assure you." Then, the first femme stepped forwards. Her swirling optics shone like a red sun, yet the Autobots knew that she was on their side.

"I am Meridian. I am here because I am to train your daughter Goldstream, as I understand it. I harness the power of lightning and electricity, and I am also the usual negotiator for the Winged Guardians."

"It is good to meet you, Meridian. We are glad you are here."

"I am glad to be here, Prince Prowl."

"How did you…"

"Long story." Once Meridian was done introducing herself, Firedancer stepped forwards.

"I'm Firedancer, and as you might guess, I have the best control over fire out of all my sisters except for the eldest, Airstrike. I am the 3rd oldest of us all, and I am glad to be teaching your son, Sunfire, to harness his blazing abilities!" Her left wing twitched, and a bird made of flames flew out, and danced in the air above the mechling. Sunfire laughed, and followed the bird, until it disappeared.

"Very impressive, mademoiselle. I am grateful for your presence here." Prowl bowed to the femme, who giggled.

"Wow! Big sister wasn't kidding when she said you were formal and polite! It's a shame you're already taken." Firedancer curtsied in return, holding the tips of her wings like one would hold a skirt. Then, Raindancer stepped forwards.

"I'm Raindancer. As my name suggests, I have control over rain, but it's not just rain. I can control any type of weather, but I warn you that I am a strict teacher, not at all like my older sister here." Sunstreaker racked his processor to try to remember what exact words would describe this blue femme, and then it struck him like lightning. Brash and Bold. That was what this femme was. Then, the last femme stepped forwards.

"I am Frostwind. You can probably tell by my name that I control cold conditions, and I am proud that I am being trusted to teach a little one to harness those powers. However, I must warn you, I may sometimes lose control myself, and my cold spark will flash-freeze everything around me that is not shielded against it." The ice-colored femme bowed gracefully, and held up one hand. On her palm, a small femme made of ice started to dance in graceful movements, completely captivating Goldstream. Once the ice femme disappeared, the sparklings both clapped, and Frostwind bowed again. Then, Meridian stepped forwards again.

"There is another of our number coming soon. Her name is Battle Star, and she is coming here by choice alone. She mentioned something about having a loved one here that she wanted to see again, and possibly bringing along another sister of ours. War Bird. Those two can cause some serious damage to the Decepticons when they fight together, and almost as much when separate. They will be arriving by private shuttle, so be prepared for their arrival within one Earth week." The cool-colored Winged Guardian bowed gracefully, and then straightened. "If you may, we need to be shown to where we are staying while we teach your sparklings."

"Of course, mademoiselle. Please come this way. Children, you go with your mother to get to bed." The two sparklings pouted, but started giggling when Sunstreaker scooped them up and started to use his headfins to tickle their bellies, seeing as his hands were full of sparklings. They all went into the Ark, and while Sunstreaker put the twin sparklings to bed, Prowl showed their esteemed guests to their temporary quarters.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Prowl?"

"Yeah, Sunny?"

"Do you think that this is a good idea? I mean, the Winged Guardians seem nice and all, but you saw how afraid they were of each other! It's as if, even though they're siblings, they are afraid of each other's powers. They all seem really powerful, too. Firedancer seems nice, but is a bit silly, if you know what I mean. She was even flirting with you, and you're already bonded to me!"

"Sunny, I…"

"Plus, there was Raindancer and Frostwind. They seem like the no-nonsense kind of femmes, and the way I see it, Raindancer is a brash and bold femme as well. The only one I could tell would be a good teacher was Meridian, and I have doubts about her too."

"I know that you're worried about our sparklings, Sunny, because I am too. But don't worry, the Winged Guardians would never hurt a sparkling. I've spoken to Airstrike, and she says that they have a code to protect innocent lives and to save those who fight for good. And the Winged Guardians cannot lie, either."

"Heh. A blessing and a curse, that is."

"Yes, but they can tell the wrong truths to the enemy whenever captured, or they can only tell part of the truth, but they have never given the 'Cons any substantial information." Prowl reached over Sunstreaker's shoulders to gently brush the warrior on the cheek. "Now get some rest. There's nothing to worry about." Sunstreaker let out a defeated, tired sigh.

"All right. G'night, Copper."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **One Week Later…**

"Well, Copper, the two other Winged Guardians are supposed to arrive today, aren't they?" Sunstreaker and Prowl were sitting on one of the volcano's ledges together, both wearing their flight suits.

"Yes, but I still find it illogical that a simple shuttle can travel from Cybertron to Earth in so little time."

"Copper, these are the WINGED GUARDIANS we're talking about. Logic doesn't exactly apply to them most of the time. For instance, isn't it illogical that they can control certain, or in Airstrike's case all, elements?" Sunstreaker glanced over at his bondmate, who was starting to freeze up. Sighing, the warrior whacked him in the back of the head, successfully snapping him out of the impending logic-circuit crash. Prowl rubbed the back of his head, wincing.

"Thanks, I needed that."

"No problem, Copper." The two went back to watching the skies, while down below, two of the Winged Guardians were busy training their sparklings.

"All right, Sunfire, you ready to practice with the small flame again?"

"Yah!" The mechling waved his arms in the air, happily shouting.

"All right then! Now, hold out one hand." As Firedancer showed the sparkling what to do, he copied her. "Good. Now, focus the fire inside you on the air above your hand, and imagine a small flame appearing." A small flame appeared on Firedancer's palm, and the same happened to Sunfire, except where the Winged Guardian's flame was calm and controlled, the sparkling's flame was wildly waving everywhere, and he was having a hard time keeping it lit and small. Finally, the small flame on the sparkling's hand died out, and he pouted.

"Hard!" He plopped down into a sitting position, his legs stretched out in front of him, and his little arms crossed, a pout on his face.

"I know that it's hard at first, but practice will make it easier for you! And remember, we're just starting small, nothing major like trying to use your fire to blow up a Seeker or anything like that." Firedancer rubbed the top of the sparkling's head with her right hand, and smiled warmly at him. He looked up at her in awe, processing what she had said.

"Dat possible?"

"Yes, you can use your fire to do a lot of things once you master use of it and get stronger. Now, want to practice more?"

"Yes, pwease."

On the other side of the clearing, Frostwind was working with Goldstream.

"No, no, no, no… you're not focusing right. Now, the way to do this is to reach down inside of yourself with your mind and spark, draw the cold out of yourself, and direct it wherever you want it to go. Now, do what I do. Choose a target…" Frostwind looked at the stones they had been practicing with. Goldstream copied her, and looked at a smaller stone than the Winged Guardian was looking at. "Now, reach inside for that cold while aiming with your hand." Frostwind raised her right arm, leveling her fingertips with her target stone.

"Kay…" Goldstream copied the adult femme, aiming at her stone while trying to reach inside of her for that cold she knew was there, and had used before.

"Now, focus that cold through your fingertips, and direct them towards your target!" A blast of freezing cold shot out of the Winged Guardian's hand, and the stone was quickly sheathed in ice. Goldstream tried to do the same, and ended up only lightly frosting the stone. "Well, at least you actually HIT the target this time."

Back on the ledge of the volcano, Sunstreaker noticed something heading towards them through the air.

"Prowl, you see that?"

"See what?"

"That." Sunstreaker raised one arm, and pointed to a spot in the sky that had the gleam of sunlight reflecting off of the hull of a shuttle. Suddenly, the metal in the sky turned red-hot, and was coming in fast! "Let's go help!" Both mechs activated the wings of their flight suits, and dove off of the ledge. Swooping up, they saw that the shuttle had leveled out, and was then circling above them, as if the pilot was unsure as to where they should land. Sunstreaker flew up to the cockpit, and saw two femmes sitting at the controls. One had a battle mask and visor, while the other's face was clearly seen. The one without her face covered had a lightning-bolt scar on her left cheek, right under her optic, as well as a similar scar on that same side on her torso. Then, he heard one of them speak, but he didn't see the second femme's lips moving, so it must have been the masked and visored femme.

"We request permission to land, and we would like an escort to a landing space." The voice was slightly deeper than normal for a femme, as well as slightly robotic, but it was probably an effect of the battle mask. Sunstreaker tried to talk to them, but realized that they couldn't hear him. They probably had some kind of voice amplification, so he decided to use his comm. unit.

"If you need to land, follow me and Prowl. We'll guide you to a landing space."

* _Who is Prowl?_ * Just as the femme asked the question, Prowl flew up beside Sunstreaker, and waved mid-flight with one wing.

"I am Prowl, Second in Command to Optimus Prime, bondmate to Autobot Sunstreaker, and son of Lord Praxum of Praxus."

* _It is an honor to meet you, Prince Prowl. We give you and your bondmate our respect._ * Both femmes performed what they recognized as a Winged Guardian gesture of respect, but it was a bit more complicated. Instead of simply folding one hand over the designs on their chests, they swung their arms up and around in circles as they rose from their seats, and as their arms were swinging down, they bowed, and then folded a hand over the designs on their chests while bowing their heads in respect. Sunstreaker glanced at Prowl out of the corner of his optics, contacting him over their spark-bond.

 **.:That was strange… do you think it might be a warrior thing, or the ultimate gesture of respect or something like that? Or do you think that these two just live to be different?:.**

 **.:I believe that it may be something like how you treated that Ambassador from that African tribe last year. You and he had similar customs, because you were both warriors. They are warrior femmes, I can see that. Perhaps they used that custom because they have also been away from their base more than the others have.:.**

 **.:Really? How do you know that?:.**

 **.:I was given a background check by Airstrike. She told me that Battle Star, the one without a battle mask and visor, was kidnapped when newly born, and sold as a slave. She was then raised by a Neutral who was also a Prime without the Matrix, and trained to fight since she was just a few months old. War Bird's past is a bit more vague, but from what I know, she was born a warrior, and fell in love with someone in Crystal City. She was horribly wounded in a battle, which is why she hides her face, and she even blocked her own loving feelings for a few millennia, until she discovered that her beloved had survived the attack on the city.:.**

 **.:Then that means…:.**

 **.:Yes. She's Bluestreak's girlfriend.:.**

 **.:I guess we should show them how to land. They're looking at us strangely.:.**

 **.:Indeed.:.** Prowl and Sunstreaker waved their wings, motioning for the Guardians to follow them, and started to slowly spiral towards the ground. The shuttle followed them, but stopped when the two split up. When Sunstreaker started to hover mid-air, he motioned for them to keep following him, as Prowl landed at the entrance to the Ark to notify Prime of the new arrivals. Frustrated, Sunstreaker got back on the comm.

"You two need to follow me. Prowl is going to let Prime know that you two have arrived, and I am going to land you guys in the only open space we have available. Which is right outside Wheeljack's outside laboratory door."

* _Very well. We will follow._ * The shuttle moved towards Sunstreaker, and he led the way to the large open space near the single door in the side of the volcano. After he landed, he put away his wings, and used a dagger he pulled from subspace to draw a circle in the dirt. He motioned towards the circle, and spoke through the comm. again.

"Land in the center of that circle! You can angle your shuttle to face any direction you want, but you HAVE to land in the circle."

* _Sure. Beats flying all day again._ *

"I thought Winged Guardians liked to fly"

* _Yeah, but even we can get tired of sky and space sometimes._ * The shuttle landed neatly in the center of the circle, just as a group of Autobots came around the side of the volcano. At the front of the group were Optimus Prime, Prowl (still wearing his flight suit), Bluestreak, and, surprisingly, Jazz. There was the sound of stuff tumbling on the inside of the shuttle, and they could hear cursing as both femmes yelled at the mess that was obviously just created. Then, the shuttle door opened, and the two femmes walked out.

"Greetings. I am Battle Star, and this is my sister, War Bird." Both femmes did the more complicated version of the greeting gestures that they had first performed for the bonded couple that had escorted them, leaving all of the Autobots speechless. Then, they remembered their manners, and greeted them with the standard gesture. Once the formalities were over with, Jazz and Bluestreak ran to the femmes, huge grins on their faces. Battle Star happily embraced Jazz, both of them weeping happily, while Blue skidded to a stop in front of War Bird, and they stared at each other with tears in their optics. Then, all of a sudden, War Bird stepped forwards, and embraced the sniper, sobbing.

"I thought you were dead for so long… and now… now I have you back again, my sweet Blue…" Bluestreak put his arms around the sobbing femme, gently stroking her wings, which he knew she liked him to do.

"It's all right, War Bird! I'm here now, and I didn't die in the attack! Look, I'm just fine! And I've missed you all these years, my Birdie!" Nobody in the crowd watching was tempted to laugh at the nickname that Bluestreak had used for War Bird, for they had heard the rumors of her temper, and did not want to find out if they were true. When the two reunited couples finally released each other from their embraces, the two new Winged Guardians turned back to face the other Autobots.

"We are happy to once again be reunited with the ones we love, and we would like it if we could be stationed here indefinitely." Battle Star held out her right hand to Optimus Prime, who hesitated. He knew that having the warriors stationed under his command for an indefinite amount of time would have its benefits, but he didn't know how either Airstrike or his own Autobots would react to his accepting their offer. Finally, he relented.

"I accept your offer, Battle Star and War Bird. Welcome to the Ark and the Earth Autobot ranks." Optimus took hold of the Guardian's right hand with his own, and they shook on their agreement.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Battle Star ended up staying in her shuttle that night, and Jazz was sleeping in there with her, just because they hadn't seen each other for so long.

"Jazz?"

"Yeh, Star?"

"Did you ever think about me while we were apart?"

"Ev'ry day, Star." Jazz rolled over on the small berth that Battle Star had pulled out of the wall of her shuttle for him to sleep on, while she slept in a specialized hammock she had invented to accommodate her frame size and type. To him, she was the most beautiful creature in the universe, even with the small flaws that were her scars. He had never really understood why she hadn't repaired them, and he had never asked. However, that night, curiosity got the better of him. "Star?"

"Yes, Jazz?"

"Why do ya' keep those scars on ya' face an' side? Ah neva' understood why." The SIC turned his head to face in the direction he knew that his beloved was in, and saw her pale gold optics staring back at him with a tender, loving light.

"I keep them because I need a reminder of my youngest days. I got these scars during my very first battle… the one in which my teacher was killed." The glow of her optics dimmed slightly in sadness, and Jazz decided to drop the topic, and he was soon asleep.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Five Weeks Later…**

"Wow! Those two are amazing!"

"Yeah! Of course they are! They're WINGED GUARDIANS for Primus' sake! Of COURSE they're amazing!"

"But being able to BEND like that?! THAT'S NOT NORMAL!"

"Hey… doesn't that pose remind you of AirStrikeTF?" Sideswipe pointed at Battle Star, who was standing tall, straight, and balanced perfectly on her left leg as he held her right leg so that the tip of her foot touched her nose.

"Yeah… hey, do you think that she and Jazz will become bondmates soon?"

"Probably. Jazz seems to want to become inseparable from her, judging by the way he's been acting lately."

"What's your expert psychological opinion, Smokescreen?"

"On who? Battle Star or Jazz?"

"Both." Sideswipe glanced at the Praxian out of the corner of his optics, keeping the show of flexibility and skill in his line of sight. War Bird and Battle Star were practicing their flexibility, and stretching their joints beyond the normal range of most Cybertronians. Then again, the Winged Guardians were ANYTHING but normal.

"I'd say that Jazz is trying to make up for all of the time that he and Battle Star were apart, and that he will probably return to his normal routine within a few more weeks. Battle Star, however, is harder to read. She and the other Winged Guardians are experts at hiding the state of their minds, as proven by the eldest of their number, Airstrike. Battle Star, judging from her usual routine, is trying to cope with a long-felt loss that I am unaware of, and judging by how distracted and sad she gets at random times, she has been hiding those emotions for at least 7 million years. She sometimes suffers from depression and insomnia, and I know this because I am sometimes woken up by the unique sound of her footsteps passing through the halls of the Ark. Her footfalls are slightly uneven, as if there is a slight problem with her equilibrium, but if there is, it doesn't mess with her daily life, or her performance in battle. The problem with her stride may actually be like a psychological wound, instead of a physical one, but I can't be sure without a real one-on-one therapy session with her." Smokescreen nodded, as if to sum up what he had said.

"Wow… so, she's got problems?"

"You could say that. However, even though she seems to have been traumatized worse in some ways that Blue has, she seems to be able to cope with it better than he can."

"Well, that's a Winged Guardian for you. I tell you, even though this may have come out of my mouth a million times since we first met Airstrike, I'll say it again. The Winged Guardians are so NOT NORMAL, so we can't expect a normal reaction from them." Then, Smokescreen held up a hand in front of the red twin's face to stop him from saying more.

"What I am saying, Sideswipe, is that Battle Star and War Bird may be different from the other Winged Guardians because they have seen and experienced more of the rest of the universe than their sisters have. From what I understand, the only other one who has spent much of her time out of their secret base is the one called Stormflight, who they say is crazy beyond compare. I agree with them, for you HAVE to be crazy to willingly fly into a plasma storm." Smokescreen lowered his hand, still observing the movements and expressions of the two Winged Guardian warriors. He frowned while he tried to gauge the emotions of the more temperamental femme, War Bird, but he was coming up with a blank because of her entire face being covered. After a few more minutes, the two femmes squared off against each other, done with stretching, and ready for sparring.

"What are they doing, Jazz?" Sunstreaker, who was on the other side of the circle of spectators from his twin, turned to the two SICs, focusing his attention on the saboteur.

"They're gonna be practicin' their fightin' moves against each other. Ah think tat Star'll win, though." The saboteur grinned, until he saw Bluestreak glaring at him.

"No way, Jazz! War Bird is going to win, I just know it!" Jazz opened his mouth to protest, but the two femmes suddenly lunged at each other, fists flying, and wings buffeting each other. War Bird landed a kick to Battle Star's left side, right over her scar, but it didn't gain any reaction other than a slight grunt from the well-trained warrior. Battle Star grabbed War Bird's leg before she could move it away, and flung her into the air. Suddenly, the masked and visored femme flared her wings, and then tucked them in tight, her arms straight and pointing forwards, and her hands balled into fists. The battle-scarred femme twisted out of the way to dodge, but the incoming femme tilted her wings off of her back slightly, turning her flight path towards her sister. There was a massive impact, and the two were concealed by a plume of dust.

"Who won?!"

"Are they all right?!"

"Who won the match?!" As the Autobots were frantically asking each other questions, the dust settled, revealing two dust-covered, severely dented femmes still facing each other, but in relaxed positions, and simply staring at each other. Then, Battle Star and War Bird did a few complex transformation sequences to shake off all of the dust, and settled back into their still-dented true forms. Battle Star took a device out of her subspace, and walked over to her sister, who was massaging a sizable dent in her right arm.

"What are they doing now, Smokescreen?"

"Hard to tell. This is probably some kind of ritual they go through, to heal each other after a sparring match. I am thinking that the Winged Guardians are closer to each other than originally thought, so it's hard to guess what they are doing." Suddenly, Battle Star activated her device, which started to emit a wide, flat, gold-colored beam of light, which she ran over each injury on her sister's frame. Instantly, the large dents popped out, and the femme was once again seemingly unblemished. War Bird took the device from her sister, and returned the favor, though the others noted that she purposefully avoided the scars. Once the two were completely injury-free (except for Battle Star's scars, of course), they turned to face their beloveds. War Bird walked up to Bluestreak, and gave him an affectionate hug, while Battle Star and Jazz kissed each other to show their affection. The two couples went inside of the Ark, leaving everyone behind to whisper about what just happened.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **One Month Later…**

War Bird walked down the corridor, holding a hand to her belly. She didn't know why, but there was a slowly, but steadily, growing pain in her torso, so she was headed down to the med bay to find out what it was. She had recently become Bluestreak's official bondmate, just two weeks after Battle Star and Jazz had become a bonded couple. Just then, Bluestreak appeared beside her, a worried look on his face.

"Bird, what's wrong?" The Praxian took hold of her free hand, trying to be comforting.

"Don't know. Pain. No idea why. Heading to med bay now." War Bird found she was having trouble concentrating through the growing amount of pain, and it was now starting to sting. All of a sudden, she blacked out, and Bluestreak caught her before she hit the ground. Her wings, which had been carefully and neatly tucked against her back, went limp, and drooped beneath her.

"Ratchet! War Bird needs help! I don't know what happened, but she was in pain, and then she just passed out, and I don't know what to do, and…"

* _Blue, calm down. I'm on my way with a stretcher, and we'll find out what's wrong with your bondmate, all right?_ *

"All right, Ratchet…"

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Newly exposed silver optics onlined slowly, and War Bird knew immediately that someone had removed her mask and visor. Her optics blazed with rage, until she saw Ratchet looking at some scan readings, and Bluestreak looking at her worriedly.

"War Bird! You're awake!" The sniper quickly rushed to her side, and put a gentle hand on her cheek after a moment's hesitation. She could feel his fingertips pulling slightly on the edges of the multitude of millennia-old scars on her face, and she fought the urge to pull away and hide her face.

"Blue… what happened? Where are my mask and visor?" The Winged Guardian saw her bondmate flinch and quickly look away. "Blue, where are they?"

"They're right here… but Ratchet says that he needs to make sure that they aren't contaminated."

"The mask and visor, or the scars?" War Bird leveled a sharp glare at the CMO, thinking about all the hard work she had put to keep her secret a secret, and how it was all suddenly meaningless, since they had found out anyway.

"He didn't say. He took some scans to figure out why you were in pain, and I think he now knows why, but he seems to be hesitant to tell us." Suddenly, the CMO turned around, an unreadable expression on his face. He was looking at a datapad, not quite looking at the couple yet.

"Yes, I do know why she felt pain and then fainted like that. She's two weeks pregnant."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **TO BE CONTINUED…**


	7. A Performance Like No Other

As the Winged Guardian and the Autobot Sniper sat in the med bay, they stared at the CMO in shock. War Bird snatched the datapad that Ratchet was holding, and looked at the results of the scans he had done. It showed that the CMO was telling the truth.

"I-I'm going to be a mother?!" The Winged Guardian's right hand flew instinctively to the multitude of scars on her face, shock still in her optics. "B-but… my face… I don't want to have any sparkling see it! It would traumatize them!" Her silver optics flashed with an emotion that the others in the room could not name, for it was hardest to read a Winged Guardian's emotions.

"Bird, it's going to be all right… I'm sure we'll find a way around it…" Bluestreak put his arms around his bondmate, being careful not to crush her folded, birdlike wings.

"But Blue, not even my eldest sister could mend my face! That's the reason why I always wore that mask and visor!" The Winged Guardian dropped the datapad next to where she sat on the medical berth, still trying to comprehend what was going on.

"Maybe there's something that is blocking anything trying to heal those cuts. Let me take a look." Ratchet went close to War Bird's face with a scanner, but the Winged Guardian pushed him away.

"Ratchet. Personal space please." Then, she snapped her fingers as she got an idea. "I still have the arm of the 'Con who did this to me! I took it as a trophy, since it was the only thing left of him after I blew him up." She stuck a hand into subspace, and rummaged around a bit. "Ah! There it is!" She pulled out a dismembered arm, which had dozens of serrated, circular blades on the end in place of a hand. It was colored in dark red and black, save for the blades, which were silver, with the edges stained with old pink energon. "Think that you might want to take a look at this?"

"Yes." The medic snatched the arm out of War Bird's grasp, and brought it over to an analysis machine. After placing it on the scanning bed, he turned on the machine, and it started to run a beam over and through it, creating a holographic projection on a larger scale so that the CMO could better examine it. The projection was bright blue, and you could see through it a bit to see the inner workings. Suddenly, the screen above where the hologram was projected from turned red, and the circular blades were highlighted in red around the edges, along with patches that were colored in bright yellow. "Looks like I've found the cause."

"What is it?" War Bird stood up, and walked over to where the projection was. Suddenly, Ratchet aimed a scanning beam at her head, and it completed the scan before she could flinch away. "WHAT THE SCRAP WAS THAT FOR?!"

"Comparison. Look." A second holographic projection appeared, this one of the Winged Guardian's head. All around the edges of her millennia-old cuts were the same highlights as the blades, but the bright yellow patches went all along the edges, instead of just appearing in random places. "The yellow means a kind of microbe that can't be seen with our normal range of vision. It is way too small. A human might be able to see it with a microscope, but considering how much of it there is on your face, I highly doubt it. It appears to be either the same color as your face, but it is more likely that it is completely see-through. It stays on the spot it is deposited, and cannot be removed unless it is actually scraped off."

"And that would probably hurt. I'm guessing that they got deposited on my face because of how fast those blades were going, and how hard they were being pressed into my face when The Shredder attacked me." War Bird snarled, sounding more like an animal than a sentient being. She pounded a fist on a medical berth, frustrated with herself AND everything that had happened to make so much go wrong. "Is it possible for you to get rid of the microbes, and fix my face?"

"It is, but as you said, it would probably hurt a lot, unless I put you into stasis. Right now, I don't think it would be safe if I injected a numbing formula into your head. That would probably kill you."

"Indeed. How soon can you do it?"

"I'll need assistance to fix your face, as well as to find every last speck of the microbe. Think it would be all right if I called in Battle Star and a few others to help me out?"

"That would be fine. Just get my face fixed!"

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **A Few Hours Later…**

"All right, War Bird, I'm going to give you some sedation gas, all right?"

"All right." The Winged Guardian was lying perfectly still on the operating table, mask and visor off and lying on a nearby table, and her wings tucked away inside of her back. Ratchet, Battle Star, Wheeljack, and First Aid were gathered in the operating room, ready to get to work. The CMO placed a medical mask over the Guardian's nose and mouth, and he had to take special measures to make sure that it didn't leak out through the cuts on her face. Once she was unconscious, the medics got to work.

"Wheeljack, bring out the scanner. We need to be able to find the microbes, and scrape them all off. Every last one."

"Right." The medically-trained inventor brought out a scanner, and activated it. The scanner processed the data, and then created a holographic projection over War Bird's face, showing exactly where the microbes were. Ratchet and First Aid started to scrape away at the yellow patches, and as the microbes were removed, the yellow receded. Every so often, they would put their tools into a small machine that effectively vaporized the microbes, while not harming their tools.

"Ratchet, I found a spot that's quite dangerous to clean."

"Where?"

"There's one patch that's in a small nick in her right optic. How should we deal with it?"

"We'll have to figure something out. Battle Star, any ideas?" The CMO turned to face the other Winged Guardian, who stepped forwards to take a look.

"I have a special tool that is meant for cleaning hard-to-remove substances from optics. I had to create it after getting some weird, self-hardening substance on my left optic while I was doing mercenary work. I have it right here." The slightly-scarred femme took a small, delicate scraping tool out of her subspace, and sterilized it. "You don't do the scraping yourself, rather, you activate the scanner and automatic sequences on the device, and it does it for you. It is much more efficient, and it doesn't harm the optic."

"Thanks. Would you please take care of it, since you know how to use it?" Ratchet moved out of the femme's way, and Battle Star walked up to where he had been standing. She bent down slightly, and activated her little device. The tiny scraping files started moving, and a small scanning beam immediately focused on the small yellow patch on the darkened optic of the unconscious femme. The tiny files moved to the optic, and delicately started scraping away at the yellow, and it quickly was removed. After Battle Star moved away to get the microbes off of her tool, Ratchet quickly checked to make sure that there was no damage to the optic other than the original nick. Finding nothing, he went back to cleaning the rest of the yellow off of the scarred face of War Bird.

"First Aid, get back over here so that we can finish up. Once we get the rest of the microbes off, Battle Star will use that device she has to regenerate the metal that was once where these cuts are now. It will also, hopefully, repair that optic."

"Yes, Ratchet." The junior medic came back over, and started to carefully scrape away at the edges of the cuts on the femme's face, trying not to cause more damage than there already was. Once they had scraped away the last of the yellow, the holographic projection was turned off, and the Winged Guardian's face returned to how it looked before the operation, save for the brand-new scrape marks around the edges of her scars.

"Battle Star, can you take it from here?"

"I can, and I will, Ratchet. It will be good to see my sister whole again." Battle Star brought out the device she had used to repair the dents that she and War Bird had sustained after their sparring match about a month ago, and turned it on. The wide, flat, golden beam of light came from the small slit near the top of the tubular device, and the Winged Guardian moved it around her sister's face so that every part of it was touched by the golden light. As the light passed over each cut, they closed up, and left no sign that they were ever there in the first place. "It is done. She'll be fine when she wakes up, but she'll probably wear her mask and visor a while to get used to her face being whole again."

"Agreed."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **A Few Hours Later…**

Silver optics onlined, and War Bird looked around the room she was in. The medics had moved her to a private recovery room. Bluestreak was sleeping in a chair beside the berth she was lying on, and the Winged Guardian smiled at him. Suddenly, she froze. She brought her shaking hands up to her face, disbelief flooding her optics. Something wasn't right. Usually, when she smiled, she would feel the edges of the multitude of cuts on her face stretch and strain. Now, there was just a smooth movement, and nothing uncomfortable like before. Touching her fingertips to each spot where there was once at least three scars in one place, she felt only the smooth, flawless metal of her face.

"War Bird? Are you all right?" The Winged Guardian turned her head to face the sniper, who was looking at her worriedly.

"H-how do I look?" War Bird's voice was uncertain, but Bluestreak smiled lovingly at her, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"As beautiful as the day I first met you in the Crystal Gardens of Crystal City." War Bird sat up, and the two hugged each other.

"How soon can I leave the med bay?"

"Ratchet said you could leave as soon as you woke up."

"Then let's go, Blue."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Hey, is that War Bird?!"

"Yeah! Why did she hide her face for so long when it's THAT beautiful?!"

"I think I heard something about her being horribly wounded five million years ago, so she hid it with that mask and visor."

"Why wait so long to get it fixed?"

"I heard that it COULDN'T be fixed, even by her eldest sister!"

"That's a bit scary."

"Shh! They're coming over here!" The mechs at the table quieted down, as Bluestreak and War Bird sat down with them. Praxum, Novablast, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and Prowl looked at them kindly, as War Bird smiled at them warmly.

"Good morning, gentlemechs. I trust you are all feeling well?"

"Yeah."

"Thank you for your concern, War Bird."

"I'm doing well."

"I'm just fine."

"I'm feeling great!"

"That is good to hear. How are your children doing, Prowl and Sunstreaker?" War Bird turned her head so that she could lock her silver optics on the bonded couple. To the others, her optics seemed to stare right into their sparks. Then, there was an announcement over the comm. system.

* _Hey, everyone! Blaster here with the special monthly announcements, and MAN do we have an exciting one for you all! This week, starting today, is the Autobots Earth Music Appreciation Week! Starting tonight, we will have a karaoke party every night for the entire week! The rest of the time, it'll be music rehearsals, and we've even invited the most famous band on Cybertron to come and help with the performances! The band called Rockin' Death will be assisting with the music, and will be signing autographs! Don't forget! It's Autobots Earth Music Appreciation Week, starting today! Blaster out!_ *

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **That Night…**

"Hey, everyone! This is Blaster, and I'm proud to inform you all that the band Rockin' Death just arrived an hour ago, and they have been practicing with our first entries for the Karaoke Night performances! I'm not sure myself who had entered or what they are singing, but we can probably expect something amazing! Now, will our first entries step forwards?" The Autobots all looked around, only to see the seven Winged Guardians walk towards the stage. Once the femmes were onstage, they turned around to face the crowd, and Starblitz, who was in the middle of the line, started to tap out a beat with her foot. War Bird and Battle Star were on either side of her, with Raindancer and Firedancer on opposite sides as well, and Meridian and Frostwind on the ends of the line. Ten color-shifting spotlights came to rest on the Winged Guardians, as well as three femmes that were standing with musical instruments behind them. With the tall, bird-winged femmes at the front of the stage, nobody could tell what the three smaller femmes looked like. Then, the band started to play, and the Winged Guardians danced in perfect synch.

 _People everywhere_

 _A sense of expectation hanging in the air_

 _Giving out a spark_

 _Across the room your eyes are glowing in the dark_

 _And here we go again, we know the start, we know the end_

 _Masters of the scene_

 _We've done it all before and now we're back to get some more_

 _You know what I mean_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha)_

 _Take it now or leave it (ah-ha)_

 _Now it's all we get (ah-ha)_

 _Nothing promised, no regrets_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha)_

 _Ain't no big decision (ah-ha)_

 _You know what to do (ah-ha)_

 _La question c'est voulez-vous_

 _Voulez-vous_

 _I know what you think_

 _The girl means business so I'll offer her a drink_

 _Looking mighty proud_

 _I see you leave your table, pushing through the crowd_

 _I'm really glad you came, you know the rules, you know the game_

 _Master of the scene_

 _We've done it all before and now we're back to get some more_

 _You know what I mean_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha)_

 _Take it now or leave it (ah-ha)_

 _Now it's all we get (ah-ha)_

 _Nothing promised, no regrets_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha)_

 _Ain't no big decision (ah-ha)_

 _You know what to do (ah-ha)_

 _La question c'est voulez-vous_

 _And here we go again, we know the start, we know the end_

 _Masters of the scene_

 _We've done it all before and now we're back to get some more_

 _You know what I mean_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha)_

 _Take it now or leave it (ah-ha)_

 _Now it's all we get (ah-ha)_

 _Nothing promised, no regrets_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha)_

 _Ain't no big decision (ah-ha)_

 _You know what to do (ah-ha)_

 _La question c'est voulez-vous_

 _Voulez-vous_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha ah-ha, ah-ha)_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha ah-ha, ah-ha)_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha ah-ha, ah-ha)_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha ah-ha, ah-ha)_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha)_

 _Take it now or leave it (ah-ha)_

 _Now it's all we get (ah-ha)_

 _Nothing promised, no regrets_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha)_

 _Ain't no big decision (ah-ha)_

 _You know what to do (ah-ha)_

 _I can still say voulez-vous_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha)_

 _Take it now or leave it (ah-ha)_

 _Now it's all we get (ah-ha)_

 _Nothing promised, no regrets_

 _Voulez-vous (ah-ha)_

 _Ain't no big decision (ah-ha)_

 _You know what to do (ah-ha)_

 _I can still say voulez-vous_

Another song started to play, and the Winged Guardians continued in synch, but this time they seemed to dance with an attitude never seen in them before.

 _There's a new kind of dancing_

 _that's gonna be the rage_

 _You just leave yourself behind_

 _Like an actor on a stage_

 _Cop a different pose_

 _From the pose you're in_

 _Shine a different attitude_

 _From underneath your skin_

 _Attitude dancing_

 _Strut around the floor in a different attitide_

 _Attitude dancing_

 _Any attitude is the proper attitude_

 _Attitude dancing_

 _Don't be afraid to change your attitude_

 _Attitude dancing_

 _Free up your spirit with a new attitude_

 _It don't even matter_

 _If you stretch or shake_

 _And it don't really matter_

 _What moves your body makes_

 _And it don't really matter_

 _What steps you choose to do_

 _Only one thing matters:_

 _That's your attitude_

 _Your attitude, attitude dancing_

 _Attitude dancing_

 _Strut around the floor in a different attitide_

 _Attitude dancing_

 _Learn to move in another attitude_

 _Attitude dancing_

 _Find the groove in a new attitude_

 _Attitude dancing_

 _Don't be afraid of a new attitude_

 _It don't really matter_

 _What steps you choose to do_

 _Only one thing matters:_

 _Is your attitude_

 _Your attitude, attitude dancing_

 _Strut around the floor in a new attitude_

 _Do the locomotion in a new attitude_

 _Do the mashed potato in a new attitude_

 _Do the hully gully in a new attitude_

 _Find a role you like_

 _Capture it and freeze_

 _Then turn it around_

 _A hundred and eighty degrees_

 _Or if you're at a loss_

 _Observe some natural dude_

 _And turn into a mirror of his attitude_

 _Attitude, attitude, attitude_

 _Dancing_

In the last song, the Winged Guardians didn't all do the same moves, but moved in perfect harmony together all the same. At certain parts of the song, Starblitz would light up the parts of her coloration that was bright purple, to match the lyrics.

 _Super trouper beams are gonna blind me_

 _But I won't feel blue_

 _Like I always do_

 _'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you_

 _I was sick and tired of everything_

 _When I called you last night from Glasgow_

 _All I do is eat and sleep and sing_

 _Wishing every show was the last show (wishing every show was the last show)_

 _So imagine I was glad to hear you're coming(Glad to hear you're coming)_

 _Suddenly I feel all right_

 _(And suddenly it's gonna be)_

 _And it's gonna be so different_

 _When I'm on the stage tonight_

 _Tonight the super trouper lights are gonna find me_

 _Shining like the sun (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Smiling, having fun (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Feeling like a number one_

 _Tonight the super trouper beams are gonna blind me_

 _But I won't feel blue (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Like I always do (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you_

 _Facing twenty thousand of your friends_

 _How can anyone be so lonely_

 _Part of a success that never ends_

 _Still I'm thinking about you only (still I'm thinking about you only)_

 _There are moments when I think I'm going crazy (Think I'm going crazy)_

 _But it's gonna be alright_

 _(You'll soon be changing everything)_

 _Everything will be so different_

 _When I'm on the stage tonight_

 _Tonight the super trouper lights are gonna find me_

 _Shining like the sun (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Smiling, having fun (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Feeling like a number one_

 _Tonight the super trouper beams are gonna blind me_

 _But I won't feel blue (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Like I always do (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you_

 _So I'll be there when you arrive_

 _The sight of you will prove to me I'm still alive_

 _And when you take me in your arms_

 _And hold me tight_

 _I know it's gonna mean so much tonight_

 _Tonight the super trouper lights are gonna find me_

 _Shining like the sun (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Smiling, having fun (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Feeling like a number one_

 _Tonight the super trouper beams are gonna blind me_

 _But I won't feel blue (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Like I always do (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you_

 _lights are gonna find me_

 _Shining like the sun (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Smiling, having fun (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Feeling like a number one_

 _beams are gonna blind me_

 _But I won't feel blue (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

 _Like I always do (sup-p-per troup-p-per)_

The Autobots all cheered, and then they finally got a good look at the band members when the Winged Guardians left the stage.

"DAUGHTER?!"

"DAD?!"

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **TO BE CONTINUED…**

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Author's Note: The songs do not belong to me. Here are the songs and their respective owners in the order I wrote them into the story.**

 ** _Voules Vous_ by ABBA**

 ** _Attitude Dancing_ by Carly Simon**

 _ **Super Trouper**_ **by ABBA**

 **The OCs in this story are all mine, but the others all belong to their respective creators. The plot is mine, because my mind works in strange and mysterious ways.**


	8. Here We Go Again

Everyone turned and stared in shock, including one of the band members of Rockin' Death. The femme holding the guitar looked at her two fellow band members, and then looked out into the crowd. All of the other Autobots were staring at either the other two band members, or the two mechs who had called out. Suddenly, there were two black and white blurs as the femme at the drums leaped out from behind them, and Praxum dashed to the stage. Then, the femme at the keyboard went around it, and Novastrike climbed up onto the stage to look at her face-to-face. The two black and white Autobots that had run at each other met in a loving hug, as the black and white femme cried into her father's shoulder. It seemed as if the sharp-edged blue femme wanted to do the same, but was afraid to.

"F-father?"

"Yes, Blueflare, it's me. I'm so glad I've found you…" Novastrike placed his hand on top of the femme's head, which was the only thing he could do without cutting himself. The femme leaned into the contact, happiness and joy flooding her bright blue-green optics. Meanwhile, Praxum and the black and white femme had parted from their hug, and stared at each other with tears in their optics.

"Father, I cannot believe that you're here! I can barely remember you from my earliest days!"

"I am glad I have found you, Protocol, my daughter. Your three brothers are here, too. As well as your little niece and nephew." Praxum led the femme off of the stage, and over to where Prowl and his brothers were standing with Sunstreaker and the twin sparklings.

"Are these the little ones?" Protocol knelt down in front of the sparklings to get a better look at them, and Goldstream giggled. The little femme sparklings bopped her aunt on the golden star that was in the middle of her chevron, and the adult femme laughed kindly, a light, happy sound.

"Yes, Protocol, and these are your brothers, and Prowl's bondmate, Sunstreaker."

"It is nice to meet you all, especially you, Prowl. I was kidnapped by the same scientist that took you away from the family, and I heard about you from him. It was mostly how you managed to escape because of your brand-new, highly advanced battle computer. I myself had been upgraded to a point where I could escape, and I was able to get along in life without any help. I had become an Enforcer in Praxus, and that is where I met my fellow band members." Protocol straightened from where she had been looking at the sparklings, and glanced around at her family.

"Sister, I know that our father has already told you who Sunny is, but I would like it if you got to know each other better. After all, he's part of the family now." Prowl gazed lovingly at his bondmate, who smirked at him in return, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"It is nice to meet you, Sunstreaker. So, you are the mother of these adorable little sparklings?" Protocol smiled up at the taller Autobot with a bright smile on her face, and Sunstreaker smiled back.

"Yeah. It was pretty hard when I was pregnant with them, especially at one point in time…" The yellow mech shuddered, and the femme filed away that part of the conversation to ask about later. "It was also hard learning to take care of them, especially with their abilities."

"Abilities?"

"We'll let them show you later. Happily, it's gotten easier to take care of them, because we've learned their individual likes and dislikes, as well as the routines they've settled into." Sunstreaker leaned down, and picked up his twin sparklings. "Well, I think it's bedtime for tired little sparklings."

"No… tired… mama." Goldstream yawned, and rubbed her optics tiredly. Sunfire was already sleeping in his mother's arms, so Sunstreaker walked out of the rec room to put the little ones to bed.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **The Next Morning…**

"Hey, Dad?"

"Yes, Protocol?" Praxum spun his chair away from the monitor, and faced his newly-rediscovered daughter.

"I was wondering about something Sunstreaker said last night. He mentioned a time when he had a really tough time with the twin sparklings when he was still pregnant with them, but I don't understand what he was talking about. And then he mentioned abilities that his sparklings have. Can you explain it to me?" Protocol saw Praxum sigh, and thought she saw a tired look in his optics.

"Oh… where to begin?" The Lord of Praxus swiveled his chair around to face the monitor again. "Come sit beside me, and I will tell you what I know."

"All right…" Protocol sat down in the seat next to her father, and waited for him to begin.

"It was when Sunstreaker was nine months pregnant with the twins. He could barely take five steps without feeling exhausted, so he stayed in his and Prowl's quarters, on the berth. A battle started just outside the Ark; another attempt to either kidnap or kill him and his unborn sparklings. We thought that we could hold them back, but we forgot about Skywarp's teleportation abilities. We had been overconfident in our abilities to hold the Decepticons back, so there was nobody watching over Sunstreaker." Praxum's doorwings lowered until Protocol thought they would just fall off of her father's back.

"So… what happened?"

"They got to Sunstreaker. Skywarp went in and out before any of us could notice that he wasn't at the battle. When we saw Sunstreaker lying unconscious in that Seeker's arms… Prowl lost it. He tried his best to get to the Seeker, but he couldn't fly, and he wouldn't have been strong enough to carry the mech when he was nine months pregnant, because he was carrying two sparklings, not just one. Skywarp loaded Sunstreaker into Astrotrain's space shuttle form, and the Decepticons retreated with their prize. We made plans immediately, trying to figure out how we were going to save him and his sparklings, and I and a few others were focused on trying to calm Prowl down and comfort him. When Sideswipe stumbled upon his and Sunstreaker's father, we had enough mechs to storm the Decepticon base, and we did so as soon as everyone was ready. However, we weren't fast enough." Praxum's head tilted downwards in sorrow and shame.

"What do you mean, Dad?" Protocol leaned in to try to see her father's optics, and try to gauge his emotions.

"By the time we got there… the Constructicon Mixmaster had already experimented on them a bit. Sunstreaker's genetics were slightly altered to include an upgrade he had installed in himself during the golden ages, but the sparklings…" Praxum sighed. "The sparklings had been altered with small bits of genetic coding that was taken from energon samples scavenged from a battlefield where four Winged Guardians were injured. Shockwave had sent the samples to Mixmaster to test them on whoever he chose, and the sparklings were given incredible powers derived from those four Guardians." Praxum pulled up a datafile on another monitor, showing the genetic structure of the two sparklings, with several sequences highlighted. "See these color-highlighted sections of the CNA strands? They are color-coded to match the Winged Guardian they are taken from. Ice-blue is Frostwind, purple is Meridian, bright blue is Raindancer, and fiery orange is Firedancer. The first two Guardians have small bits of genetic coding in Goldstream, the femme sparkling, and the last two Guardians have small bits of genetic coding in Sunfire."

"So… what powers does that give to the sparklings?"

"Frostwind controls everything cold, so now, Goldstream does too. Meridian controls lightning and electricity, so the same also goes for Goldstream. Firedancer controls fire the best aside from the eldest sister, Airstrike, and Raindancer controls any kind of weather, so those two powers go for Sunfire as well. Sunfire also inherited his mother's ability to breathe fire. The four Winged Guardians I named are here to teach the little ones to control their abilities, and they are making slow progress."

"I see… so is that why it seems like Sunstreaker carries the weight of the world on his shoulders?"

"Yes. He blames himself for what happened, even though he has been told time and again that, in his condition, he could not have been able to prevent it from happening."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Two Months Later…**

"Come on, Blue, we're going to be late!" War Bird practically dragged the sniper off of the berth, anxious to get to the med bay in time. Bluestreak yelped when he hit the floor, and sat up rubbing his head.

"Why are you so anxious today, Birdie?"

"Blue. Scan date. REMEMBER?!" War Bird held a calendar right in front of her bondmate's face, and Bluestreak's optics widened.

"SCRAP! Let's go!" The sniper was up in an instant, and the two speed-walked down to med bay, where Ratchet was waiting for them.

"You two are BARELY on time! What took you so long?!" The CMO had to refrain from throwing wrenches at them, mainly because of War Bird being pregnant, but that reason also coupled with her already-terrifying temper coupling with her newly-developed protective motherly instincts, which made her even twice as terrifying as before.

"Sorry, Ratchet, but Blue here was a bit lazy." War Bird gave her bondmate a friendly jab in the side with her elbow, and the sniper smiled at her, although he was rubbing his now-sore side.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Prime had me out on patrol until midnight. Blame him." Bluestreak then looked a bit nervous and excited at the same time. "So, can we do War Bird's scan now?"

"Sure. Come over here, madam, and we'll see how many little ones you've got in there." Ratchet had already set up the 4-D ultrasound device, and the hologram projector and imaging screen were already online and waiting. War Bird lay down on the medical berth obediently, carefully arranging her wings so that they were comfortable on the generic berth. Ratchet brought over the jar of gel that he had kept since Sunstreaker had been pregnant over a year ago, and spread some on her slightly-bulging belly.

"That's pretty cold, and it feels weird too." War Bird's expression was comically hilarious as she tried to figure out how to react to the new feeling of the gel on her abdomen, and Ratchet had to use all of his willpower not to laugh at her.

"Well, deal with it. It's required for the ultrasound. Now, I'm going to put the transducer on your belly, and it will help us get an image of the sparkling or sparklings inside of you." Ratchet placed the device on the gel, and pressed it down just hard enough to come in contact with the metal of the Winged Guardian's abdomen. The image of inside her belly popped up on the screen, and they could just make out a small shape inside of her. "You see the white outline here?"

"Yes."

"That's the sparkling. Looks like you've only got one in there. Is that enough for the two of you?" Ratchet looked inquisitively at the bonded couple, who simply smiled at him.

"Yes, we can deal with one sparkling. I don't think we're ready for more than one just yet." Bluestreak's voice had an unspoken hint in it, and Ratchet caught it. He smiled in understanding, because he knew he was referring to the troubles Prowl and Sunstreaker had been going through with their own little twins.

"Well, looks like the sparkling is a bit larger than they normally are at this stage, probably inherited from its mother. I can see a few slight irregularities in the sparkling's form, which are hints of where the limbs are going to grow. I'll turn on the holographic imager so that we can get a better look." Ratchet, still keeping the transducer on War Bird's belly, turned on the holo-imager, and a 3-D image of the sparkling popped up and hovered mid-air. They could make out the beginnings of the head and the body, with tiny raised spots at certain parts of the sparkling's body. There were four regular ones that would end up as the arms and legs, but there were two on its back that Ratchet couldn't figure out whether they would become doorwings or bird wings, because those were what the sparkling's parents had.

"I'm hoping the sparkling has its mother's wings." Bluestreak stroked one of War Bird's wings, causing her to smile.

"Well, we'll be able to see in two months which kind they will end up being. When you reach the five month mark, do you want to know what gender it is?"

"Yes. We want to know what to expect." War Bird smiled at the CMO. "Blue and I decided that we would want to know as soon as possible."

"Well, I'll keep that in mind." Ratchet turned off the ultrasound machine, and cleaned the gel off of War Bird's abdomen. "Come back next month for your check-up, so that I can make sure that the sparkling is still healthy. And remember, War Bird, no fighting Decepticons unless it's in self-defense."

"I'll try to remember." The Winged Guardian stood up, and walked out with her bondmate.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Two Months Later…**

"Blue. Blue. Blue. Blue. Blue." With every repetition of her bondmate's nickname, she poked the silver and gray Praxian's right cheek. With a groan, Bluestreak woke up, and looked at his bondmate.

"Since when do you wake me up like that?"

"Since now. Get up, it's almost time for my scan appointment with Ratchet." At those words, Bluestreak's optics blazed with excitement. How could he have forgotten what that day was?

"Oh, right! Come, let's go to the med bay. Don't want ol' Hatchet to be angry at us for being late like last time." Bluestreak got off of the berth, and they went to the door. When it opened, they were surprised to see Sunstreaker standing in front of them, a box in his left hand, and his right hand poised to knock on a door that was no longer in front of him. "Sunstreaker? What are you doing here?"

"I came to give you guys a present. I know that you two have been getting up later, and that you probably have no time to go down to the rec room before your appointment, so I brought you some breakfast." The yellow mech opened the box, and revealed energon muffins that seemed freshly baked.

"Did you bake these?" Bluestreak's optics were wide with surprise, and War Bird was simply staring hungrily at the muffins.

"Yep. Just got them out of my oven five minutes ago, so they're still warm." Sunstreaker handed Bluestreak the box, and then waved as he walked away. "I need to go check on the sparklings now, so I'll see you guys around."

"Yeah, see you, Sunstreaker." Bluestreak was staring at the box of muffins he had suddenly found himself holding, and then he snapped out of it. "Come on, Birdie, we don't want to be late for your appointment."

"Right. And give me one of those muffins!" War Bird snatched one out of the box, and ate it while they walked to the med bay. When they opened the doors, Ratchet was just finishing setting up the ultrasound machine, and he froze, then spun to face them.

"What is that smell?!"

"Fresh energon muffins from Sunstreaker. He gave them to us for our breakfast." Bluestreak smiled, and started to eat his third muffin, while War Bird was eating her fifth.

"Can I have two of them?"

"Sure!" Bluestreak held out the box to the CMO, who snatched two muffins out, and started to eat them. There was only one muffin left after that, and War Bird claimed it before the other two could so much as blink.

"Mmm… good muffins." War Bird finished the last muffin, and then turned to Ratchet. "well, shall we get started?"

"Very well. Come over to the ultrasound and lie down. You know the drill."

"Indeed." Soon, War Bird was lying down, and the ultrasound machine was turned on, with the transducer resting on her gel-covered belly.

"Well, looks like the sparkling is a femme. She also seems to be getting wings like her mother's." Ratchet pointed out the small, still-developing wings on the little unborn femme's back, and the parents-to-be smiled.

"Looks like you got what you wished for, Blue. You always said that you wanted a daughter that was like me." War Bird reached out, and squeezed the sniper's right hand with her left.

"Yes, and I'm glad."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

As Sunstreaker walked back to the quarters that he shared with his sparklings, his twin, and Prowl, he started to feel a slight twinge in his torso. He frowned slightly, but kept walking. He soon arrived at his destination, and he walked inside. The room was empty of any other Cybertronians, since his twin children were out training with their Winged Guardian teachers, and he figured that Prowl was in his office, working. Sideswipe was probably in the training room. Once again, he felt a twinge in his torso, and he rubbed at his chest, trying to get it to go away. It didn't.

"What the frag…" Sunstreaker sat down on his and Prowl's berth, still rubbing at his chest. Soon, a slight burning sensation started to creep through his chest, starting from his spark. Just before he blacked out, he vaguely remembered a similar occurrence that happened over a year ago, and then, nothing.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Prowl walked through the corridor, a datapad under one arm, and an energon cube in his other hand. When he arrived at the quarters he shared with his bondmate, kids, and brother-in-law, he keyed in the code, but he stared in shock when the door opened. The energon cube shattered on the ground as he dropped both cube and datapad in his rush to his bondmate's side. Sunstreaker was sprawled on the ground beside their berth, unconscious.

"Sunny? SUNNY?! Wake up!" Prowl gently shook the yellow warrior, but he didn't respond. Frantically, he sent a message to Ratchet. "Ratchet, you need to get down to my family's quarters NOW! Something's wrong with Sunny!"

* _I'm on my way, Prowl. Just keep calm, and make sure that Sunstreaker isn't damaged, all right?_ *

"Yes, Ratchet, but please hurry!" Prowl gently turned Sunstreaker over, so that the warrior was lying on his back. There were a few scratches on the yellow mech's arms and chest from where he had fallen, but was otherwise unharmed. Prowl was about to comm. Ratchet again, but the CMO chose just that moment to come skidding into the room.

"Prowl, how is he?"

"He doesn't have any major wounds, just a few scratches, but he won't wake up!" Prowl looked at the CMO with an expression that clearly said ' _I don't know what's wrong, but please help him, I'll probably die if he dies, so please help him._ '

"All right, I'll take him down to the med bay, all right?"

"All right…" Prowl stood up as Ratchet scooped Sunstreaker up into his arms. The medic carried the warrior bridal-style down to the med bay, with the worried Praxian following close behind.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Sunstreaker groggily woke up in the med bay, and looked around. He saw Ratchet and Prowl looking at scan results, and a thought struck the warrior. _Déjà vu…_ "Prowl?"

"Sunny!" The Praxian rushed to the warrior's side, and took hold of his hand. "You're awake!"

"Yeah, I'm awake. What happened?" Just after the warrior had asked his question, Ratchet immediately answered.

"Congratulations. You're pregnant again."


	9. Ratchets a Dad?

_**Hello, readers! I am SO SORRY for the long hiatus from this story, but I swear I have a good reason! My muse had gone missing, and I've been struggling to get through high school, so I haven't been able to write more on this! However, I found the file, so everything is fine again!**_

 _ **Also, for those of you who have been waiting for updates on my other fics, I am so sorry about not updating for so long, but I'll try to get to work on those right away! I am sorry to say, however, that I seem to have permanently lost several files that I distinctly remember saving a couple of years ago, so those may never be published! Thankfully, I have located files for "Jazz's Wave," "Flight of Fancy," and quite a few fics about Harry Potter, X-Men, Avengers, Transformers, Clone Wars, and Finding Nemo that I've not finished/published yet, so be on the lookout for those as well! It's good to be back!**_

 _ **DISCLAIMERS! The author does not own Transformers, nor any characters affiliated with Transformers. Only the OCs are mine. Flames are for fireplaces, not stories. All flames will be used to roast marshmallows.**_

 _ **R &R!**_

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Sunstreaker stared at the medic, trying to comprehend what he had just been told. "I'm pregnant… again?" The warrior instinctively placed a hand on his abdomen, pushing himself up to a sitting position with his other hand.

"Yes. At least your sparklings will have new siblings." Ratchet went about the routine of giving the mother-to-be-again packets of mineral supplements, as well as the advice to not fight any Decepticons for the next ten months. After that, they set up the ultrasound appointment date, and the couple left the med bay. Sunstreaker was still in a bit of a daze, after finding out that he was carrying once again, and that his little ones would have someone new to play with in ten months! They arrived at their family's quarters, and went inside for some rest.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Three Months Later…**

Sunstreaker's optics onlined early in the morning, and he could feel the warm presence of his bondmate pressed against his side as the SIC slept. The yellow warrior smiled, and snuggled closer to the tactician, and suddenly realized that his belly was starting to bulge outwards slightly. His optics dimmed in contentment, relieved that he now had physical proof that he really was going to have more sparklings. Then, he realized something, and his optics blazed with a bright blue light. He quickly turned onto his side, and started to shake his bondmate.

"Prowl, wake up! Copper, I need to talk to you!"

"Hn… what…" Prowl sleepily onlined his optics, and looked at his bondmate. "Sunny? What time is it?"

"It's 8:30 AM. We've got half an hour until it's time for my appointment!" When Sunstreaker said that, Prowl's optics came fully online, all notions of sleep leaving the SIC, and the two sat bolt upright.

"Come, Sunny, let's get you some energon before we need to be in med bay, all right?"

"M'kay." Sunstreaker was helped off of the berth by his bondmate, and they found that their two children were already awake. Together, their family walked down the corridor, with Sunfire holding Sunstreaker's hand, and Goldstream holding the hand of her father.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Hey, bro! How are the two of you doing?" Smokescreen waved the four of them over from a table near the door, smiling when he saw the twin sparklings, who were 7 ¾ months old by that time.

"UNCLE SMOKEY!" The twins let go of their parents' hands, and ran over to the blue, red, and gold Praxian.

"Heeyy, how are my favorite niece and nephew?" Smokescreen scooped up the two sparklings in his arms, and chuckled. "You two are getting bigger every day! Soon I won't be able to hold both of you at one time!"

"Heh. They really like you, Smokey." Sunstreaker smiled at his brother-in-law, who was snuggling the twin sparklings.

"Well, I like them too. Don't you two need to be in the med bay soon?"

"Yeah. Hey, Smokescreen, do you think you could look after the little ones while I take Sunny for his appointment after we have some energon?" Prowl looked hopefully at his brother, who gave a hearty laugh.

"I'd love to look after the little tykes! You two don't have anything to worry about! Uncle Smokey will take care of them!" Smokescreen started to bounce the two sparklings on his legs, causing them to giggle with glee.

"Thanks, brother." Prowl went to the energon dispenser, and came back with a cube in each hand. "Here you go, Sunny." He handed one over to his bondmate, and they both hurriedly drank down their energon.

"Well, we have to go now. Don't wanna upset Ratchet. Now, Sunfire, Goldstream, you be good for Uncle Smokey, all right?" Sunstreaker looked down at his children, who nodded enthusiastically. "Good. We'll be back soon." The warrior turned to his bondmate, and the two of them walked down to the med bay together, hand-in-hand.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Ten Minutes Later…**

Just in time, the bonded couple entered the med bay, and Ratchet turned to greet them with a smile on his face.

"Good, you're on time. Sunstreaker, come lay down on this berth, and we'll get the scan done."

"All right, Ratch'." Sunstreaker obediently went over to the medical berth, and lay down, while Prowl sat down in the chair next to him. Ratchet brought over the jar of gel that he had put on the shelf, and spread some of it on the warrior's slightly-bulging abdomen. Sunstreaker shuddered slightly at the cold feeling, but did not move from the berth. Then, the CMO placed the transducer on the warrior's gel-covered belly, and turned on the machine.

"All right… see these two outlines? Those are the sparklings. You're having twins again." Ratchet smirked at the couple's horrified expressions, that slowly slid into acceptance and happiness. "Let's just hope that the Decepticons don't get ahold of Sunstreaker again. I think that you two having a set of power-bestowed twins is already enough."

"Yes, I believe so. I'll just be glad if they are healthy when they are born." Prowl reached out, and took hold of his bondmate's left hand with his right, and gently squeezed it. Sunstreaker turned his head to face the SIC, a soft smile on his face. Then, the warrior looked at Ratchet again.

"Do you think we could have a holographic image for the collection we have?"

"Of course, Sunstreaker." Ratchet activated the holo-imager that was attached to the ultrasound device, and waited for the image to be completed. After recording for a few minutes, the medic downloaded it onto a small, portable holo-imager, and handed it to Prowl. "Here you go. I'll get Sunstreaker cleaned off, and then you two may return to your quarters."

"Thank you, Ratchet." Prowl set the holo-imager into subspace, and waited while the medic scraped the gel off of Sunstreaker's belly.

"All right, you can go now."

"All right. Oh… hey, Ratch'?"

"Yes, Sunstreaker?"

"How is Blue and War Bird's sparkling coming along? This is her 8th month, isn't it?"

"Yes. Their little unborn femme is developing nicely, and takes after her mother. But we'll have to wait to see what colors she ends up with." Ratchet then shooed them out of his med bay, chuckling softly when he saw them walking back to the red room holding hands.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

"Smokescreen! We're back!" Sunstreaker looked across the room, his optics locked onto the red, blue, and yellow Praxian. The warrior's two young sparklings were still being cuddled by their eldest uncle, and were giggling with glee. The base psychiatrist caught sight of them immediately, and came bounding over with a sparkling in each arm.

"Great! So, how'd it go?" Smokescreen bounced the two sparklings up and down in his arms, before their parents took the little ones back.

"It's going to be another set of twins. I just hope the Decepticons don't get ahold of Sunny again." Prowl looked at his bondmate with affection in his optics, and Smokescreen could feel his own spark swelling with pride, and thankfulness that Sunstreaker had entered his brother's life in such a good way. Ever since the two of them had started to spend more time together on the Ark, Prowl had become more open to others, and less cold and emotionless. Suddenly, there was the sound of shuttle engines outside of the Ark, and everyone froze. Just moments later, they were all rushing outside.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

Surprisingly, Ratchet was the very first one to exit the Ark, and he was looking up into the sky with a strange expression on his face. Up above, there was a shuttle colored in red, pink, and white, with a red cross on either side of it. It was slowly descending, and had landing gear extended. Ironhide went up to his elder brother, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Ratchet, is it really…"

"She's back…" Ratchet kept staring at the shuttle, even as it went closer and closer to the ground. When it finally landed, the ramp extended downwards, and five mechs came out. The first was mostly light blue, with some red on his chest, and he was about the same height as the Lamborghini twins. The next one was mostly white, with some black and brown, and he was about the same height as Mirage. The one after that was mostly white, with some red, and he had a four-blade helicopter rotor on his back, with the helicopter skis on his upper arms. The fourth to come out was also mostly white with some red, and had a windshield on his upper chest, as well as red and white antennae on either side of his head. The fifth, and last, mech to come out was obviously a young medic, who looked surprisingly similar to Ratchet, but he had no grey chevron, and his head was red, with a white facemask and a bright blue visor over his face. They all seemed a bit nervous, but the appearance of the five new mechs was nothing compared to what happened next. The shuttle they had come out of started to transform, with millions of tiny plates shifting and folding, compressing into a smaller shape, until a tall, winged femme who was the same height as Optimus Prime stood behind the five new mechs. She had a pink and red crest on her forehead, and her wings were white on the back, with mostly pink on the undersides, and red lining the bottom edges. She had pink shoulder-guards, with the red medic crosses on them, and most of the rest of her was white, save for some pink and red highlights. Her optics were swirling with blue, blue-green, and purple, making them appear like constantly-changing mother-of-pearl. And it was obvious that Ratchet recognized her immediately.

"Greetings, Autobots. My name is Cauterize. I am sure you have heard of me from my sisters here on Earth, but for those who don't know, I am the Winged Guardian medic, though some have called me the Goddess of Medicine before, and I am also the bondmate of Ratchet, and the mother of the Protectobots, whom you see that stand before you." The femme motioned towards the five new mechs, and Ratchet stared at them in shock, while everyone else was staring at Ratchet.

"RATCHET?! I never knew you were a dad!"


End file.
